tit-1 


.    .    LIBRARY    .    . 

Connecticut 
Agricultural  College. 

CLASS    NO ^XD      --/"I 

/  48 


COST 


L" 


DATE 


Oct.  xa.     19V0 


a.ao 

HlH- 

I  (ell] 


X 


BOOK    220. H74    c.  1 

HOLT    #    BIBLE    AS    COMMUNITY    BOOK 


3  1153  000bSM7E  S 


\ 

I 

This  book  may  be  kept  out^  ' 
TWO  WEEKS 
and   is   subject   to   a   fine   of &&<* 
CENTS  a  day  thereafter.    It  will  be 
due  on  the  day  indicated  below. 

OCT  1  3  19^3 


THE  BIBLE  AS  A 
COMMUNITY  BOOK 


BY 

ARTHUR  E.   HOLT 

Secretary  for  the  Social  Service  Department 
Congregational  Education  Society 


THE  WOMANS  PRESS 

NEW  YORK 
1920 


Copyright,  1920,  by 

THE  NATIONAL  BOARD  OF  THE 

YOUNG  WOMENS  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 

NEW  YORK 

I  fc  "7  1  7- 


The  Bible  text  ueed  in  this  book  is  taken  from  the  American  Standard  Edition  of  the 
Revised  Bible,  copyright,  1901,  by  Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons,  and  is  used  by  permission. 

A  Study  Outline  to  be  used  in  connection  with  the  book  may  be  ordered  separately 
from  The  Womans  Pres3,  600  Lexington  Avenue,  New  York.    Price,  25  cents. 


TO  MY  FATHER 

WHO  HAS  MADE  HIS  BIBLE 

A  COMMUNITY  BUILDING  BOOK 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    A  Parable  op  No-Man's  Land .' 7 

II.    A  Clan  Established  in  Justice  and  Faith 11 

III.  Faith  Destroyers 28 

IV.  The  Fight  for  Justice  and  Social  Faith 37 

V.    Sacrificing  a  Nation  in  the  Name  of  a  Community  of 

Justice 48 

VI.    First  Attempts  at  Building  the  Community  of  Justice  55 

VII.    The  Founder  of  the  Universal  Community 63 

VIII.    The  Growth  of  the  Community  Founded  by  Jesus  ....  74 

IX.    The  Universal  Community  Founded  on  Justice  in  the 

Life  of  To-Day 83 


THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

CHAPTER  I 
A  PARABLE  OF  NO-MAN'S  LAND 

Away  out  on  the  edge  of  civilization  where  Sage  Brush  Mesa 

joins  on  to  Sucker  Flats  lies  the  frontier  region  of  No-Man's 

Land.     Its  inhabitants  first  came  in  search  of 

Setting  Up  an     isolation  and  in  the  hope  that  they  might  escape 

Man's  Land        ^e  Pr°blems  of  living  together  which  confronted 

them  in  the  more  thickly  settled  communities. 

The  first  person  to  offer  a  solution  of  the  problem  was  Dead- 
Eye  Dick,  the  crack  shot  of  all  this  district.  He  sought  to 
build  a  community  based  on  fear  of  himself.  He  acquired  an 
authority  which  few  dared  to  dispute.  Armed  to  the  teeth  with 
the  latest  man-killing  instruments,  he  ruled  over  the  length  and 
breadth  of  No-Man's  Land. 

But  Dead-Eye  Dick  came  to  grief  because  while  it  is  always 
possible  for  one  man  to  be  stronger  than  another  man  it  is  very 
hard  for  one  man  to  be  stronger  than  two  men.  One  night  in  a 
saloon,  led  by  a  fellow  called  Combination  Bill,  a  gang  fell  upon 
Dead-Eye  Dick,  and  his  authority  was  at  an  end.  Because  this 
gang  had  learned  the  secret  of  strength  in  combination,  for  a 
long  time  they  held  sway  over  the  district  between  Sage  Brush 
Mesa  and  Sucker  Flats.  But  their  secret  was  soon  discovered 
and  other  gangs  were  formed  who  disputed  their  authority,  and 
there  was  war  incessant.     Murder  and  bitterness  absorbed  the 

7 


8  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

thought  and  attention  of  the  people.  They  neither  tended  the 
flocks  and  herds  nor  cultivated  the  soil.  The  heart  of  every  man 
was  full  of  suspicion  and  the  hand  of  every  man  was  against  his 
neighbor. 

The  next  person  to  try  his  hand  at  helping  conditions  was 
Peaceful  Jud.  Peaceful  Jud  saw  that  the  whole  country  was 
being  depopulated  and  that  the  people  were  facing  starvation. 
He  attributed  this  condition  to  two  causes :  first,  that  the  people 
carried  guns,  and  second,  that  there  were  no  law  courts.  He 
succeeded  in  getting  the  people  to  throw  away  their  guns  and  to 
establish  law  courts.  But  matters  did  not  greatly  improve. 
The  law  courts  went  unused  because  there  was  no  one  who  really 
believed  in  them.  The  strong  said  that  they  did  not  need  them 
and  the  weak  were  afraid  that  they  were  controlled  by  the 
strong.  Although  the  people  had  no  guns,  they  poisoned  the 
springs  and  hung  each  other  to  trees  with  lariat  ropes.  Men 
became  as  excited  when  they  saw  an  enemy  near  a  spring  or 
carrying  a  lariat  rope  as  they  formerly  did  when  they  saw  an 
enemy  with  a  gun.  Even  Peaceful  Jud  soon  found  it  impossible 
to  take  himself  seriously. 

The  last  person  to  try  his  hand  at  community  uplift  was 
Parson  John.  They  called  him  Parson  because  on  occasions  he 
called  the  people  together  and  talked  to  them  about  what  they 
ought  and  ought  not  to  do.  He  did  not  begin  by  finding  fault 
with  all  that  had  been  done  before.  He  was  broad  in  his 
appreciation  and  even  partially  approved  of  what  Dead-Eye 
Dick  had  tried  to  do.  He  saw  that  community  life  based  on 
fear  was  often  man's  first  attempt  at  community  living  and 
would  probably  always  be  tried  where  no  better  plan  was  offered. 
He  did  not  begin  by  threatening  the  people  with  eternal  punish- 
ment if  they  did  not  reform  for  he  saw  in  this  only  another 
appeal  to  selfishness  based  on  fear.     He  saw  that  a  society  based 


A  PARABLE   OF  NO-MAN'S   LAND  9 

on  fear  would  always  disintegrate.  His  only  criticism  of  Peace- 
ful Jud  was  that  he  began  with  results  rather  than  causes. 
Parson  John  maintained  that  the  only  permanent  community 
life  must  be  based  on  faith  and  trust. 

He  knew  that  there  had  never  been  any  power  under  Heaven 
devised  for  holding  people  together  who  feared  and  hated  each 
other.  Murder  was  always  bred  in  hate.  He  knew  that  the 
only  way  you  could  get  people  to  trust  each  other  was  to  estab- 
lish justice  and  do  away  with  injustice.  Since  all  of  the  people 
were  full  of  suspicion,  someone  had  to  begin  the  process  of  giving 
justice  if  distrust  was  to  be  dispelled.  Parson  John  decided  to 
begin  with  himself.  For  the  sake  of  bringing  faith  back  into 
the  community  he  was  willing  to  give  justice  and  to  give  it  first 
and  thus  be  worthy  of  trust.  The  result  was  that  people  rallied 
around  him  with  a  feeling  different  from  that  they  had  ever 
had  for  any  other  man.  Men  gave  him  what  they  had  never 
given  before.  They  gave  him  trust  and  loyalty.  Because  he 
had  the  loyalty  of  men  he  became  powerful. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  had  the  largest  following  of  any 
man  in  the  community.  He  had  learned  the  secret  of  strength 
based  on  confidence.  In  order  that  there  might  be  more  people 
who  loved  to  do  justice  he  called  the  people  together  and  they 
formed  an  association  to  study  the  meaning  of  justice,  and  dedi- 
cated themselves  to  the  doing  of  it.  As  the  number  of  people 
multiplied  who  were  willing  to  give  justice,  community  faith  de- 
veloped. In  the  interest  of  justice  law  courts  were  established 
which  had  as  their  purpose  the  promotion  of  public  justice. 
Law  and  order  was  thus  established.  The  community  had 
solved  the  problem  of  living  together  through  the  efforts  of  one 
who  was  willing  to  give  justice  and  give  it  first. 

Like  a  surge  of  the  tide  the  convictions  of  men  are  set  toward 
freedom  and  away  from  autocratic  compulsion.    It  is  not  at  all 


10  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

impossible  that  community  life  in  our  day,  intoxicated  with  a 
passion  for  freedom  and  impatient  of  all  authority,  may  degen- 
erate into  social  anarchy  through  the  misguided 
The  Advance       efforts  of  those  who  seek  freedom.     Just  at  pres- 

?on\*?°  ,*,    n      ent  the  world  is  rent  with  class  strug erle.    Mutual 

to  a  World  ...  . 

Order  Built  on     suspicion  characterizes  all  social  groups.     Our 

Justice  papers  are  records  of  daily  wars  between  contend- 

ing factions.  This  struggle  may  develop  into  a 
social  anarchy  which  will  prove  destructive  of  the  good  which 
society  has  already  achieved.  Our  difficulty  seems  to  lie  in  the 
fact  that  men  and  women  do  not  realize  the  price  which  must  be 
paid  for  freedom  of  association  in  community  life.  The  most 
pressing  moral  problem  which  thinking  people  face  is  the  count- 
ing of  the  cost  of  the  free  community  life  they  profess  to  be 
seeking. 


CHAPTER  II 
A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH 

The  culmination  of  the  social  thought  and  experience  of  the 
Hebrews  is  found  in  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
But  the  thought  of  Jesus  was  the  ripe  fruitage  of 
The  Hebrew  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  social  experi- 
Coinmunity  as  ence  jn  ^he  great  laboratory  of  the  Hebrew  com- 
Laboratorv  munity.    Hebrew  social  life  had  been  lived  under 

the  guidance  of  an  ideal.  Successes  and  fail- 
ures had  both  been  of  value.  The  experience  had  been  inter- 
preted by  men  of  great  insight  who  had  meditated  upon  it  and 
had  helped  to  separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat. 

The  story  of  Hebrew  life  starts  with  the  founding  of  a  com- 
munity by  a  great-souled  man  who  makes  the  clan  the  object 
of  his  love  and  enthusiasm : 

Now  Jehovah  said  unto  Abram,  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from 
thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house,  unto  the  land  that  I  will  show 
thee :  and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and 
make  thy  name  great ;  and  be  thou  a  blessing :  and  I  will  bless  them  that 
bless  thee,  and  him  that  curseth  thee  will  I  curse :  and  in  thee  shall  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.  So  Abram  went,  as  Jehovah  had 
spoken  unto  him ;  and  Lot  went  with  him :  and  Abram  was  seventy 
and  five  years  old  when  he  departed  out  of  Haran.1 

The  holy  fire  for  the  building  of  Israel  is  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation.  These  men  are  the  keepers  of  the 
Covenant.  The  builders  of  the  Hebrew  community  are  set  over 
against  its  destroyers.    Experience  reveals  those  who  are  build- 

1  Genesis  12  :l-4. 

11 


12  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

ing  and  those  who  are  destroying.  Gradually  it  is  seen  that 
certain  men  have  a  mind  for  the  welfare  of  Israel.  These  men 
possess  certain  virtues  and  programs  of  action  which  build  the 
community.  Others  possess  attitudes  of  mind  which  destroy 
the  community.  Both  types  of  men  are  revealed  in  the  testing 
fires  of  experience. 

One  of  the  most  important  facts  to  remember  about  this 
community  is  that  it  starts  as  a  family  and  is  not  just  a 
geographical  group.  It  is  a  nomadic  clan,  bound  together  by  the 
ties  of  blood,  by  a  common  memory,  a  common  experience  and 
a  common  purpose.  It  is  a  clan  which  holds  its  property  as 
such.  The  people  have  not  yet,  as  individuals,  been  taught  to 
say  "yours  and  mine"  in  the  possession  of  private  land,  and  con- 
sequently are  not  divided  in  their  sense  of  solidarity.  They 
have  no  settled  abode  and  are  consequently  called  by  their  family 
name  and  not  by  their  geographical  name,  which  always  tends 
to  obscure  a  sense  of  brotherliness.  The  primary  question  with 
the  clan  did  not  have  to  do  with  those  things  which  pertain  to 
the  physical  life  of  the  community,  but  with  the  maintaining  of 
its  solidarity  as  a  clan ;  for  it  had  to  be  a  success  as  a  clan  before 
it  could  be  a  success  in  making  a  living.  The  important  question 
for  the  Hebrew  was  not  the  relating  of  men  to  the  world  of 
things  but  the  relating  of  men  to  each  other.  In  the  building 
of  the  Hebrew  community  they  never  lose  sight  of  this.  For 
them  the  conquering  of  their  desert  world  depended  on  the  main- 
taining of  the  solidarity  and  efficiency  of  their  clan  strength. 
If  they  became  weak  and  disintegrated,  they  could  not  maintain 
themselves  in  competition  with  unfriendly  desert  competitors. 
Better  business  for  the  Hebrews  awaited  the  solution  of  a  better 
relationship  of  men  to  each  other.  Any  breaking  up  of  a  true 
clan  relationship  was  ultimately  poor  business.  Hebrew  com- 
munity thought  specialized  on  human  relationships.    Other  ages 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH    13 

have  been  able  to  contribute  more  to  the  problem  of  how  a  com- 
munity makes  its  living,  how  it  goes  to  market,  how  it  should 
maintain  its  health,  but  the  contribution  of  the  Hebrew  was  the 
moral  contribution  of  how  men  can  live  together  in  permanent 
human  relationships.  Experience  of  the  present  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  an  age  which  knows  more  about  production,  more  about 
distribution,  and  more  about  sanitation  than  any  previous  age, 
needs  to  go  back  and  learn  what  are  the  conditions  of  brother- 
hood. 

The  Hebrew  community  starts  with  three  hundred  years  of 
simple  tribal  life.  During  that  period,  from  being  slaves  under 
Pharaoh  in  Egypt,  the  Hebrews  rose  under  great  leadership  to 
the  place  where  they  were  the  dominating  force  in  Western  Asia. 
It  was  a  simple  rural  civilization,  without  luxury,  with  a  great 
deal  of  hardship,  and  with  a  rugged  courage  and  high  idealism. 
Three  great  personalities  stand  out  as  leaders  who  lay  the 
foundation  of  Hebrew  freedom  in  justice,  faith  and  loyalty. 

If  any  large  group  of  people  were  asked  what  is  the  most 
wonderful  thing  about  Egypt,  that  group  would  be  almost  unani- 
mous in  naming  the  pyramids.  The  pyramids, 
Moses,  Who  however,  stand  in  many  ways  as  monuments  of 
ays  e  oun-  naftonaj  disgrace.  They  were  made  possible  by  a 
Hebrew  Free-  system  of  human  slavery  whereby  it  was  easy 
dom  and  Law  for  one  man  to  command  the  services  of  thou- 
sands of  human  beings,  who  were  living  a  life 
without  rights  and  without  privileges.  Man-power  was  cheap 
in  Egypt.  A  vainglorious  ruler  could  command  the  cheap  labor 
to  erect  monuments  which  gratified  his  own  vanity.  The  Book 
of  Genesis,  in  chapters  41  to  47,  tells  us  of  the  way  in  which  a 
gigantic  national  monopoly  was  established  by  the  then  ruling 
Pharaoh.  It  is  a  country  where  years  of  plenty  are  succeeded 
by  years  of  drought  and  poverty.    At  the  suggestion  of  one 


14  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

Joseph,  Pharaoh  was  encouraged  to  store  up  in  national  gran- 
aries the  surplus  products  of  the  years  of  plenty.  When  famine 
again  swept  the  land,  the  national  government  was  in  shape  to 
supply  the  needs  of  the  people  and,  incidentally,  gain  control 
over  them.  The  story  relates  how  the  famine  was  very  sore  in 
the  land  of  Egypt  and  the  people  gave  first  their  money  in  ex- 
change for  grain,  and  then  their  cattle,  and  then  their  horses, 
and  then  their  flocks,  then  sold  their  land,  and  thus  at  the  end  of 
the  seventh  year  the  land  belonged  to  the  ruler,  and  all  the  people 
were  working  the  land  on  shares.  The  monopoly  was  established 
as  a  piece  of  national  benevolence : 

Now  therefore  let  Pharaoh  look  out  a  man  discreet  and  wise,  and  set 
him  over  the  land  of  Egypt.  Let  Pharaoh  do  this,  and  let  him  appoint 
overseers  over  the  land,  and  take  up  the  fifth  part  of  the  land  of  Egypt 
in  the  seven  plenteous  years.  And  let  them  gather  all  the  food  of  these 
good  years  that  come,  and  lay  up  grain  under  the  hand  of  Pharaoh  for 
food  in  the  cities,  and  let  them  keep  it.  And  the  food  shall  be  for  a  store 
to  the  land  against  the  seven  years  of  famine,  which  shall  be  in  the  land 
of  Egypt ;  that  the  land  perish  not  through  the  famine.1 

And  there  was  no  bread  in  all  the  land ;  for  the  famine  was  very  sore, 
so  that  the  land  of  Egypt  and  the  land  of  Canaan  fainted  by  reason  of  the 
famine.  And  Joseph  gathered  up  all  the  money  that  was  found  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  and  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  for  the  grain  which  they 
bought :  and  Joseph  brought  the  money  into  Pharaoh's  house.  And  when 
the  money  was  all  spent  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  in  the  land  of  Canaan, 
all  the  Egyptians  came  unto  Joseph,  and  said,  Give  us  bread  :  for  why 
should  we  die  in  thy  presence?  for  our  money  faileth.  And  Joseph  said, 
Give  your  cattle  ;  and  I  will  give  you  for  your  cattle,  if  money  fail.  And 
they  brought  their  cattle  unto  Joseph  ;  and  Joseph  gave  them  bread  in 
exchange  for  the  horses,  and  for  the  flocks,  and  for  the  herds,  and  for  the 
asses :  and  he  fed  them  with  bread  in  exchange  for  all  their  cattle  for  that 
year.  And  when  that  year  was  ended,  they  came  unto  him  the  second 
year,  and  said  unto  him,  We  will  not  hide  from  my  lord,  now  that  our 
money  is  all  spent ;  and  the  herds  of  cattle  are  my  lord's ;  there  is  nought 
left  in  the  sight  of  my  lord,  but  our  bodies,  and  our  lands:  wherefore 
should  we  die  before  thine  eye,  both  we  and  our  land?  buy  us  and  our 


1  Genesis  41 :33-36. 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH     15 

land  for  bread,  and  we  and  our  land  will  be  servants  unto  Pharaoh :  and 
give  us  seed,  that  we  may  live,  and  not  die,  and  that  the  land  may  be 
not  desolate. 

So  Joseph  bought  all  the  land  of  Egypt  for  Pharaoh ;  for  the  Egyptians 
sold  every  man  his  field,  because  the  famine  was  sore  upon  them :  and  the 
land  became  Pharaoh's.  And  as  for  the  people,  he  removed  them  to  the 
cities  from  one  end  of  the  border  of  Egypt  even  to  the  other  end  thereof. 
Only  the  land  of  the  priests  bought  he  not :  for  the  priests  had  a  portion 
from  Pharaoh,  and  did  eat  their  portion  which  Pharaoh  gave  them ; 
wherefore  they  sold  not  their  land.  Then  Joseph  said  unto  the  people, 
Behold,  I  have  bought  you  this  day  and  your  land  for  Pharaoh:  lo,  here 
is  seed  for  you,  and  ye  shall  sow  the  land.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  at 
the  ingatherings,  that  ye  shall  give  a  fifth  unto  Pharaoh,  and  four  parts 
shall  be  your  own,  for  seed  of  the  field,  and  for  your  food,  and  for  them 
of  your  households,  and  for  food  for  your  little  ones.  And  they  said, 
Thou  hast  saved  our  lives :  let  us  find  favor  in  the  sight  of  my  lord,  and 
we  will  be  Pharaoh's  servants.  And  Joseph  made  it  a  statute  concerning 
the  land  of  Egypt  unto  this  day,  that  Pharaoh  should  have  the  fifth ; 
only  the  land  of  the  priests  alone  became  not  Pharaoh's.1 

The  general  poverty  which  extended  also  over  the  land  of 
Canaan  brought  the  Hebrew  tribes  down  into  Egypt  and  they 
found  themselves  a  part  of  this  gigantic  system  of  oppression. 

Now  there  arose  a  new  king  over  Egypt,  who  knew  not  Joseph.  And 
he  said  unto  his  people,  Behold,  the  people  of  the  children  of  Israel  are 
more  and  mightier  than  we :  Come,  let  us  deal  wisely  with  them,  lest 
they  multiply,  and  it  come  to  pass,  that,  when  there  falletih  out  any  war, 
they  also  join  themselves  unto  our  enemies,  and  fight  against  us,  and  get 
them  up  out  of  the  land.  Therefore  they  did  set  over  them  taskmasters 
to  afflict  them  with  their  burdens.  And  they  built  for  Pharaoh  store- 
cities,  Pithom  and  Raamses.  But  the  more  they  afflicted  them,  the  more 
they  multiplied  and  the  'more  they  spread  abroad.  And  they  were  grieved 
because  of  the  children  of  Israel.  And  the  Egyptians  made  the  children 
of  Israel  to  serve  with  rigor:  and  they  made  their  lives  bitter  with  hard 
service,  in  mortar  and  in  brick,  and  in  all  manner  of  service  in  the  field, 
all  their  service,  wherein  they  made  them  serve  with  rigor.2 

And  Pharaoh  charged  all  his  people,  saying,  Every  son  that  is  born 
ye  shall  cast  into  the  river,  and  every  daughter  ye  shall  save  alive.3 

1  Genesis  47  :13-26.  8  Exodus  1 :  22. 

'Exodus  1:8-14. 


16  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

It  is  at  this  point  in  the  story  that  we  are  introduced  to  one 
whose  part  it  was  to  help  loosen  the  grip  of  this  gigantic 
monopoly  and  to  instill  in  the  Hebrew  brotherhood  a  conscious- 
ness of  freedom  and  also  a  regard  for  self-control  based  on  law. 

The  second  chapter  of  Exodus  tells  of  the  birth  of  a  Hebrew 
boy  whose  mother,  in  an  endeavor  to  save  him,  hid  him  by  the 
Eiver  Nile.  Pharaoh's  daughter,  finding  him  there,  caused  him 
to  be  adopted  into  the  royal  household.  The  best  training  which 
was  then  possible  for  a  growing  youth  was  at  his  disposal. 
Tradition  tells  us  that  he  was  given  a  training  in  the  University 
of  Egypt  and  also  that  he  received  a  military  education.  We  are 
told  that  very  early  in  life  he  led  a  military  expedition  in 
southern  Egypt  and  came  back  crowned  with  military  honors. 
The  best  that  the  nation  had  to  give  could  have  been  his.  Honor 
and  the  life  of  ease  were  his  for  the  asking.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  dominant  class,  a  class  which  had  power  and  wealth.  Had 
he  identified  himself  with  this  class  he  could  have  forced  thou- 
sands of  men  to  live  for  him  and  to  do  his  bidding. 

But  all  men  are  not  so  constructed  that  such  a  life  appeals  to 
them.  Moses  could  not  forget  that  his  welfare  lay  with  the 
people  of  his  own  race : 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days,  when  Moses  was  grown  up,  that  he 
went  out  unto  his  brethren,  and  looked  on  their  burdens:  and  he  saw 
an  Egyptian  smiting  a  Hebrew,  one  of  his  brethren.  And  he  looked  this 
way  and  that  way,  and  when  he  saw  that  there  was  no  man,  he  smote 
the  Egyptian,  and  hid  him  in  the  sand.  And  he  went  out  the  second 
day,  and,  behold,  two  men  of  the  Hebrews  were  striving  together :  and  he 
said  to  him  that  did  the  wrong,  Wherefore  smitest  thou  thy  fellow?  And 
he  said,  Who  made  thee  a  prince  and  a  judge  over  us?  thinkest  thou  to 
kill  me,  as  thou  killest  the  Egyptian?  And  Moses  feared,  and  said. 
Surely  the  thing  is  known.  Now  when  Pharaoh  heard  this  thing,  he 
sought  to  slay  Moses.  But  Moses  fled  from  the  face  of  Pharaoh,  and 
dwelt  in  the  land  of  Midian :  and  he  sat  down  by  a  well.1 


1  Exodus  2 :11-15. 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH     17 

It  was  a  spontaneous  outburst  of  a  true  feeling  of  indignation. 
We  need  to  estimate  it  at  its  rightful  value.  Subsequent  events 
proved  that  he  was  not  right  in  taking  the  law  into  his  own 
hands.  Private  vengeance  defeats  itself  as  an  instrument  of 
justice.  Moses  fled  to  the  wilderness  because  he  had  substituted 
violence  for  the  processes  of  established  law. 

Moses*  flight  led  to  the  land  of  Midian,  and  there  he  took 
up  the  life  of  a  sheep  herder  in  the  family  of  Jethro.  His  life 
as  a  plainsman  gave  him  time  for  meditation  and  left  his  heart 
open  to  the  revelations  of  God.  One  day  the  voice  of  God  laid 
upon  him  the  task  of  leading  his  brethren  out  of  Egypt  in  a 
great  freedom  movement,  to  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey 
where  they  could  work  out  their  own  tribal  life  and  have  oppor- 
tunity to  worship  Jehovah. 

And  Jehovah  said,  I  have  surely  seen  the  affliction  of  my  people  that 
are  in  Egypt,  and  have  heard  their  cry  by  reason  of  their  taskmasters ; 
for  I  know  their  sorrows ;  and  I  am  come  down  to  deliver  them  out  of 
the  hand  of  the  Egyptians,  and  to  bring  them  up  out  of  that  land  unto 
a  good  land  and  a  large,  unto  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.1 

Moses  returned  to  Egypt  and  with  the  help  of  Aaron,  his 
brother,  he  set  to  work  at  his  task.  His  problem  is  fourfold. 
He  must  first  arouse  the  desire  for  freedom  in  a  people  whose 
will  had  long  been  weakened  by  slavery.  He  must  with  the  help 
of  God  break  the  will  of  Pharaoh  to  dominate  and  to  enslave. 
He  must  then  organize  the  will  of  the  people  to  be  free  in  unified 
action  looking  toward  freedom.  The  exodus  out  of  Egypt  must 
be  planned  and  executed.  His  fourth  task  is  to  substitute  for 
control  by  Pharaoh  national  self-control  based  on  law  and 
through  the  machinery  of  lawfulness.  Let  us  follow  him  as 
he  works  at  his  task.  We  find  him  first  seeking  to  arouse  in  the 
people  the  will  to  be  free. 

Exodus  3 : 7-8. 


18  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

Moses  and  Aaron  went  and  gathered  together  all  the  elders  of  the 
children  of  Israel :  and  Aaron  spake  all  the  words  which  Jehovah  had 
spoken  unto  Moses,  and  did  the  signs  in  the  sight  of  the  people.  And  the 
people  believed.1 

Slavery  had  almost  destroyed  the  instinct  for  freedom  in  this 
Hebrew  cla-n.  They  were  developing  the  enslaved  mind  along 
with  their  enslaved  bodies.  Action  looking  toward  freedom 
awaited  the  kindling  of  the  desire  for  freedom.  Moses  and 
Aaron  gathered  together  all  the  children  of  Israel  and  told  them 
that  Jehovah  had  seen  their  afflictions  and  that  they  were  to  go 
out  into  the  wilderness  and  to  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and 
honey.  The  people  listened  and  seemed  to  believe  it,  but  they 
were  yet  to  learn  the  difference  between  saying  it  and  achieving 
it. 

When  Pharaoh  saw  what  Moses  was  doing,  he  increased  the 
burdens  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  their  will  for  freedom 
was  tested  as  to  whether  or  not  they  were  willing  to  pay  the  price 
of  freedom.  Many  of  them  who  had  thought  that  freedom  was 
to  be  had  by  the  saying  now  turned  against  Moses  as  their  chief 
enemy. 

The  king  of  Egypt  said  unto  them,  Wherefore  do  ye,  Moses  and  Aaron, 
loose  the  -people  from  their  works?  get  you  unto  your  burdens.  And 
Pharaoh  said,  Behold,  the  -people  of  the  land  are  now  many,  and  ye  make 
them  rest  from  their  burdens.  And  the  same  day  Pharaoh  commanded 
the  taskmasters  of  the  people,  and  their  officers,  saying,  Ye  shall  no  more 
give  the  people  straw  to  make  brick,  as  heretofore :  let  them  go  and 
gather  straw  for  themselves.  And  the  number  of  the  bricks,  which  they 
did  make  heretofore,  ye  shall  lay  upon  them  ;  ye  shall  not  diminish  aught 
thereof :  for  they  are  idle ;  therefore  they  cry,  saying.  Let  us  go  and 
sacrifice  to  our  God.  Let  heavier  work  be  laid  upon  the  men,  that  they 
may  labor  therein  ;  and  let  them  not  regard  lying  words. 

And  the  taskmasters  of  the  people  went  out.  and  their  officers,  and 
they  spake  to  the  people,  saying,  Thus  saith  Pharaoh,  I  will  not  give  you 
straw.     Go  yourselves,  get  you  straw  where  ye  can  find  it ;  for  naught  of 


1  Exodus  4:29-31. 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH     19 

your  work  shall  be  diminished.  So  the  people  were  scattered  abroad 
throughout  the  land  of  Egypt  to  gather  stubble  for  straw.  And  the 
taskmasters  were  urgent,  saying,  Fulfill  your  works,  your  daily  tasks, 
as  when  there  was  straw.  And  the  officers  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
whom  Pharaoh's  taskmasters  had  set  over  them,  were  beaten,  and 
demanded,  Wherefore  have  ye  not  fulfilled  your  task  both  yesterday  and 
to-day,  in  making  brick  as  heretofore? 

Then  the  officers  of  the  children  of  Israel  came  and  cried  unto  Pharaoh, 
saying,  Wherefore  dealest  thou  thus  with  thy  servants?  There  is  no 
straw  given  unto  thy  servants,  and  they  say  to  us,  Make  brick :  and, 
behold,  thy  servants  are  beaten ;  but  the  fault  is  in  thine  own  people. 
But  be  said,  Ye  are  idle,  ye  are  idle :  therefore  ye  say,  Let  us  go  and 
sacrifice  to  Jehovah.  Go  therefore  now,  and  work ;  for  there  shall  no 
straw  be  given  you,  yet  shall  ye  deliver  the  number  of  bricks.  And  the 
officers  of  the  children  of  Israel  did  see  that  they  were  in  evil  case,  when 
it  was  said,  Ye  shall  not  diminish  aught  from  your  bricks,  your  daily 
tasks.  And  they  met  Moses  and  Aaron,  who  stood  in  the  way,  as  they 
came  forth  from  Pharaoh :  and  they  said  unto  them,  Jehovah  look  upon 
you,  and  judge ;  because  ye  have  made  our  savor  to  be  abhorred  in  the 
eyes  of  Pharaoh,  and  in  the  eyes  of  his  servants,  to  put  a  sword  in  their 
hand  to  slay  us. 

And  Moses  returned  unto  Jehovah,  and  said,  Lord,  wherefore  hast  thou 
dealt  ill  with  this  people?  why  is  it  that  thou  hast  sent  me?  For 
since  I  came  to  Pharaoh  to  speak  in  thy  name,  he  hath  dealt  ill  with 
this  people ;  neither  hast  thou  delivered  thy  people  at  all.1 

Again  and  again  through  the  long  years  that  were  ahead  this 
experience  was  repeated.  The  children  of  Israel  lost  their  will 
for  freedom  and  turned  on  the  man  who  was  trying  to  lead  them 
out  of  bondage.  Only  as  he  fed  his  own  spirit  from  the  inex- 
haustible sources  of  power  which  he  found  in  communion  with 
his  God,  did  Moses  maintain  his  own  spirit  and  thus  retain  his 
active  power  and  ability  to  kindle  esprit  de  corps  in  the  lives 
of  the  people. 

His  second  task  was  to  break  Pharaoh's  will  to  enslave  them. 
The  Egyptian  machinery  of  slavery  was  the  expression  of  some- 
thing more  fundamental ;  namely,  the  will  of  Pharaoh  to  enslave. 

1  Exodus  5 :4-23. 


20  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

In  the  breaking  of  this  will,  Moses  had  the  help  of  God.  Great 
calamities  which  brmg  disease,  poverty,  and  death  to  the  Egyp- 
tian households  and  even  to  the  court  of  the  king  so  weakened 
the  morale  of  the  Egyptian  people  and  of  Pharaoh  that  Moses 
was  finally  able  to  repeat  to  a  sympathetic  ear  his  message : 

Let  my  people  go.1 

The  will  to  be  free  was  met  by  the  desire  that  they  should  be 
free.  The  children  of  Israel  led  by  the  high  hand  of  Almighty 
God  and  by  Moses  march  out  from  the  bondage  of  ancient  Egypt. 
It  was  always  a  day  of  great  significance  in  the  history  of  the 
Hebrew  people,  a  day  remembered  in  worship  and  festival  and 
song,  a  day  at  which  the  Hebrew  spirit  always  kindled  as  it  was 
brought  back  to  memory. 

But  escape  from  Egypt  is  not  the  whole  problem  of  freedom. 
The  children  of  Israel  had  been  controlled  by  Pharaoh.  No 
nation  can  live  without  some  kind  of  control.  Moses  did  not 
allow  them  to  drift  into  anarchy  when  they  had  escaped  autoc- 
racy.    Law  courts  and  law  became  a  necessity. 

The  path  out  of  Egj'pt  leads  straight  to  Srnai.  There  Moses 
lays  the  foundation  for  their  brotherhood  life  in  certain  great 
principles  of  human  morality.  They  are  enjoined  ever  to  keep 
alive  in  their  hearts  a  reverent  worship  for  the  one  true  God, 
to  keep  the  Sabbath  day,  to  honor  father  and  mother,  to  respect 
human  life,  the  rights  of  property,  human  chastity,  not  to  bear 
false  witness,  and  not  to  be  covetous  of  each  other's  earthly 
goods.  Along  with  these  general  principles,  Moses  draws  some 
very  definite  conclusions  to  govern  their  simple  life  as  herdsmen 
and  neighbors,  and  establishes  law  courts  as  a  part  of  the 
machinery  of  justice.  Thus  the  foundation  for  their  life  in 
freedom  is  laid  in  great  ethical  principles.     Moses  has  built 

1  Exodus  9 :1. 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH    21 

the  tribe  by  establishing  it  from  within,  and  the  people  have 
learned  independence  through  self-control. 

When  the  Hebrews  settled  in  the  hill-country  beyond  Jordan, 
they  were  faced  by  new  problems  in  community  living. 

In  those  days  there  was  no  king  in  Israel:  every  man  did  that  which 
was  right  in  his  own  eyes.1 

It  is  an  excellent  statement  of  a  community  organized  on  the 

"every  man  for  himself"  basis.     Kings  stand  for  organization. 

The    reason   for    kings    lies   not   in    the    kings 

c  i  <nrt.  themselves  but  in  the  necessity  which  the  com- 
Samuel,  Who  J 

Organized  the  munity  has  for  unified  organized  effort.  At 
Community  for  certain  stages  of  the  growth  of  a  community, 
Self-Protection     the   kingg    c(mld   get   along    without   tne    con> 

munity  better  than  the  community  could  get 
along  without  the  kings.  There  are  better  ways  of  organiz- 
ing people  than  under  the  kings.  But  it  is  better  to  be 
organized  under  kings  than  not  to  be  organized  at  all.  A  people 
among  whom  every  man  does  that  which  is  right  in  his  own 
eyes  has  little  chance  in  competition  with  the  community  where 
every  man  does  that  which  is  right  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
good  of  all.  This  the  Hebrew  people  were  finding  out  through 
painful  experience.  After  entering  the  promised  land,  they 
settled  in  scattered  groups  among  the  uplands  of  Palestine. 

And  Jehovah  was  with  Judah ;  and  he  drove  out  the  inhabitants  of  the 
hill-country ;  for  he  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley, 
because  they  had  chariots  of  iron.  And  they  gave  Hebron  unto  Caleb, 
as  Moses  had  spoken  :  and  he  drove  out  thence  the  three  sons  of  Anak. 
And  the  children  of  Benjamin  did  not  drive  out  the  Jebusites  that 
inhabited  Jerusalem ;  but  the  Jebusites  dwell  with  the  children  of 
Benjamin  in  Jerusalem  unto  this  day.2 

Manasseh  did  not   drive   out   the   inhabitants  of   Beth-shean   and  its 


1  Judges  21 :25. 
"Judges  1:19-21. 


22  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

towns,  nor  of  Taanach  and  its  towns,  nor  the  inhabitants  of  Dor  and 
its  towns,  nor  the  inhabitants  of  Ibleam  and  its  towns,  nor  the  inhab- 
itants of  Megiddo  and  its  towns ;  but  the  Canaanites  would  dwell  in 
that  land.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Israel  was  waxed  strong,  that 
they  put  the  Canaanites  to  task  work  and  did  not  utterly  drive  them 
out.  .  .  . 

Naphtali  drove  not  out  the  inhabitants  of  Beth-shemesh,  nor  the 
inhabitants  of  Beth-anath ;  but  he  dwelt  among  the  Canaanites,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  land :  nevertheless  the  inhabitants  of  Beth-shemesh 
and  of  Beth-anath  became  subject  to  taskwork. 

And  the  Amorites  forced  the  children  of  Dan  into  the  hill-country ;  for 
they  would  not  suffer  them  to  come  down  to  the  valley ;  but  the  Amorites 
would  dwell  in  mount  Heres,  in  Aijalon,  and  in  Shaalbim :  yet  the  hand  of 
the  house  of  Joseph  prevailed,  so  that  they  became  subject  to  taskwork. 
And  the  border  of  the  Amorites  was  from  the  ascent  of  Akrabbim,  from 
the  rock  and  upward.1 

Isolation  caused  the  disintegration  of  tribal  spirit.  Not  only 
did  every  man  do  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes,  but  every 
man  had  a  tendency  to  give  his  attention  only  to  that  which  was 
in  front  of  his  own  eyes.  There  was  no  cooperation  on  the 
country-sides  of  this  rural  civilization.  The  Canaanites  held 
the  cities.  They  were  the  traders  and  the  traffickers  and  the 
commercially  minded  men  of  the  time.  The  Philistines  oc- 
cupied the  coastlands.  They  too  were  organized  under  a  king. 
A  people,  then,  where  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his 
own  eyes  found  itself  face  to  face  with  nations  which  found  it 
easy  to  put  forth  unified  effort  either  because  they  lived  in  cities 
or  were  organized  under  kings.  The  result  was  that  often  when 
the  Hebrews  planted  crops,  others  harvested  them.  The 
Hebrews  had  been  compelled  to  disarm.     "We  are  told, 

There  was  no  smith  found  throughout  all  the  land  of  Israel ;  for  the 
Philistines  said,  Lest  the  Hebrews  make  them  swords  or  spears:  but 
all  the  Israelites  went  down  to  the  Philistines,  to  sharpen  every  man  his 
share,  and  his  coulter,  and  his  axe,  and  his  mattock ;  yet  they  had  a  file 
for  the  mattocks,  and  for  the  coulters,  and  for  the  forks,  and  for  the  axes, 

1  Judges  1 :  27-36. 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH    23 

and  to  set  the  goads.  So  it  came  to  pass  in  the  day  of  battle,  that  there 
was  neither  sword  nor  spear  found  in  the  hand  of  any  of  the  people 
that  were  with  Saul  and  Jonathan :  but  with  Saul  and  with  Jonathan  his 
son  was  there  found.1 

Consequently  many  of  the  people  hid  themselves  among  the 
rocks  to  escape  the  tyranny  of  the  nation's  enemies. 

When  the  men  of  Israel  saw  that  they  were  in  a  strait  (for  the  people 
were  distressed),  then  the  people  did  hide  themselves  in  caves,  and  in 
thickets,  and  in  rocks,  and  in  coverts,  and  in  ipits.  Now  some  of  the 
Hebrews  had  gone  over  the  Jordan  to  the  land  of  Gad  and  Gilead ;  but 
as  for  Saul,  he  was  yet  in  Gilgal,  and  all  the  people  followed  him 
trembling.  And  he  tarried  seven  days,  according  to  the  set  time  that 
Samuel  had  appointed:  but  Samuel  came  not  to  Gilgal;  and  the  people 
were  scattered  from  him.2 

Individualism  and  pacifism  did  not  seem  to  be  a  success  in 
the  experiences  of  this  ancient  rural  people.  A  great  nationaliz- 
ation program  was  the  demand  of  the  hour. 

Among  the  Hebrews  was  a  circuit  judge  who  held  court  every 
year  in  the  circuit  which  included  Bethel,  Gilgal,  and  Mizpah. 
He  had  a  reputation  for  prayerfulness,  piety,  and  public  spirit,  a 
reputation  which  extended  from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  He  pos- 
sessed along  with  rare  qualities  of  leadership  a  deep  insight  into 
the  social  problems  of  his  time.  He  saw  the  dangers  of  a 
military  life  for  his  people.  He  saw  the  danger  of  organizing 
them  under  a  kingship.  It  invited  all  the  evil  which  cursed 
the  lives  of  the  nations  round  about  them.  In  most  cases  the 
kingship  had  become  an  elaborate  system  which  had  enslaved  the 
people.  Not  once  did  Samuel  lose  sight  of  the  tragedy  which 
he  might  be  inviting  if  he  organized  the  people  under  a  king. 
Nevertheless  he  saw  the  absolute  necessity  that  the  people  should 
organize  in  some  kind  of  an  effective  manner  to  meet  organized 

*I  Samuel  13:19-22. 

8 1  Samuel  13:6-8.    Judges  5:1-31. 


24  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

exploitations  which  were  being  inflicted  npon  them  from  nations 
and  tribes  without.  He  finally  decided  that  the  people  had  to 
have  a  king. 

Among  the  young  men  of  Israel  who  came  to  ask  the  advice 
of  Judge  Samuel  was  one  by  the  name  of  Saul.  Saul's  father 
was  a  prosperous  farmer  and  his  son  was  following  in  his 
father's  footsteps.  The  young  man  was  of  great  physical 
strength.  He  was  of  commanding  appearance,  standing  head 
and  shoulders  above  the  other  men  of  his  time,  just  the  kind 
of  a  man  who  would  appeal  to  the  popular  imagination  of  the 
people. 

Samuel  with  deep  seriousness  laid  upon  him  his  commission. 
He  showed  him  the  scattered  country  folk,  preyed  upon  and 
exploited  by  the  Canaanitish  dwellers  in  the  city  and  the  sur- 
rounding nations.  Saul  was  timid  and  shrank  from  the  pub- 
licity of  the  public  coronation.  The  people  were  all  assembled, 
ready  for  the  public  ceremony,  and  Saul  was  missing.  They 
searched  for  him  and  found  him  hiding  among  the  baggage. 
But  timid  as  he  was  in  matters  of  ceremony,  he  was  not  timid  in 
times  of  danger. 

A  few  days  later,  Nahash,  the  Ammonite,  made  a  raid  on  the 
children  of  Israel  and  offered  them  peace  on  the  condition  that 
all  of  them  should  have  their  right  eyes  put  out.  This  threat- 
ened atrocity  struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  unarmed  herds- 
men. Saul,  who  was  plowing  in  the  field,  heard  the  weeping 
of  the  people.  When  he  was  told  the  cause,  he  acted  with 
lightning-like  rapidity.  Slaying  his  team  of  oxen,  he  cut  them 
up  and  sent  a  bleeding  piece  of  flesh  by  the  hands  of  messengers 
through  the  clans  of  the  hill-country  with  the  message: 

Whosoever  cometh  not  forth  after  Saul  and  after  Samuel,  so  shall  it 
be  done  unto  his  oxen.1 

lI  Samuel  11:7. 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH     25 

This  was  the  message  by  which  he  summoned  the  clansmen. 
The  call  for  mobilization  was  effective.  Three  hundred  thousand 
men  rallied  to  his  support.  Dividing  his  army  into  two  com- 
panies, he  swept  down  upon  the  camp  of  the  Ammonites  in  the 
morning  watch  and  smote  them  until  the  heat  of  the  day.  And 
they  were  scattered  so  that  no  two  of  them  were  left  together. 

Saul  as  a  king  always  remained  a  man  of  the  people.  His 
farm  was  his  castle  and  his  armies  went  back  to  their  farms  as 
soon  as  the  immediate  occasion  which  brought  them  together  had 
passed.  No  elaborate  court  was  established  and  the  people  were 
loyal.  Saul  himself,  however,  never  measured  up  in  character 
and  spirit  to  the  promise  of  his  great  physical  stature.  He  had 
given  to  the  people  military  mobilization  but  this  is  based  on 
fear  and  breaks  up  as  easily  as  it  comes.  Jealousy  and  prejudice, 
which  are  often  the  curse  of  widely  separated  rural  communities, 
gradually  took  possession  of  Saul  and  his  life  finally  became  the 
moral  and  social  tragedy  of  a  sulk.1  Instead  of  giving  himself 
to  the  building  up  of  his  people,  he  became  insanely  jealous  of  a 
promising  young  warrior,  named  David,  who  had  shown  great 
ability  and  had  a  popular  following  throughout  the  country. 
The  closing  years  of  Saul's  life  were  marred  by  this  turning 
aside  from  his  great  task  of  national  leadership  to  the  petty  task 
of  persecuting  a  rival. 

Samuel  had  still  a  mind  for  the  unification  of  the  people  even 
though  he  had  been  disappointed  in  one  king.  He  decided  to 
choose  another,  and  this  time  the  experience  of  the  past  led  him 
to  put  less  emphasis  on  physique  and  more  on  the  spiritual 
qualities  which  are  known  as  qualities  of  the  heart.  Israel  must 
be  integrated  from  within. 

This  time  Samuel  went  to  Jesse,  the  Bethlehemite,  and  sum- 
moned the  sons  of  Jesse  to  pass  before  him  for  inspection.     One 

1  Samuel  22  :  6-10. 


26  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

by  one  they  were  rejected  because  this  time  Samuel  had  decided 
to  look  not  on  the  outward  appearance.  His  attention  was  finally 
arrested  by  the  youngest  of  the  sons,  who  was  ruddy  and  of  a 
beautiful  countenance  but  above  all  else  a  lad  of  intrepid  spirit, 
blessed  with  those  social  qualities  which  invariably  knit  men  to 
one  another  in  unbreakable  loyalty. 

In  David,  Samuel  found  ideal  material  for  the  kingship.  He 
was  a  man  of  the  people.  God  found  him  a  keeper  of  sheep  and 
made  him  a  shepherd  of  his  people,  Israel.  He  had  the  dashing 
courage  which  captured  the  popular  imagination.  He  was  loyal 
and  aroused  in  the  people  the  spirit  of  loyalty. 

David  did  for  Israel  what  Samuel  had  hoped  to  see  accom- 
plished. He  unified  the  scattered  clansmen  and  organized  them 
into  efficient  military  units.  In  his  controversy  with  Goliath, 
David  proved  that  spiritual  courage  is  greater  than  physical 
strength.  He  refused  to  succeed  to  the  kingship  through  the 
murder  of  Saul,  and  thus  showed  his  reverence  for  a  great 
national  institution.  He  showed  the  capacity  for  friendship  in 
his  love  for  Jonathan  of  which  Saul  had  never  been  capable. 
He  placed  religion  as  a  central  unifying  factor  in  the  nation's 
life  by  locating  the  ark  at  Jerusalem,  which  he  made  the  capital 
of  the  kingdom. 

David  furnished  a  spiritual  leadership  which  gave  to  the 
nation  something  more  than  military  mobilization.  It  was  a 
real  spiritual  integration  which  then  took  place  in  Hebrew  life. 
David  made  western  Asia  safe  for  Hebrew  ideals.  No  longer 
did  the  Hebrew  plant  crops  and  the  Philistines  gather  them. 
No  longer  were  the  people  hiding  in  fear,  afraid  to  go  on  the 
great  highways.  The  Hebrew  could  look  in  the  face  of  the 
Ammonite,  the  Canaanite,  and  the  Philistine,  and  be  unafraid. 
The  people  had  risen  from  the  stage  where  every  man  did  that 
which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes,  to  the  place  where  every  man 


A  CLAN  ESTABLISHED  IN  JUSTICE  AND  FAITH    27 

could  act  in  cooperation  with  the  others  for  the  good  of  all  Israel. 
Petty  tribal  jealousies  gave  way  to  national  loyalties. 

The  three  hundred  years  we  have  been  reviewing  have  been 
years  in  which  the  Hebrew  community,  led  by  great  justice-loving 
personalities,  has  grown  in  social  faith  and  loyalty  and  become  a 
power  in  western  Asia.  The  community  has  been  founded  by 
men  who  propose  to  establish  a  family  which  shall  be  a 
blessing.  It  had  been  the  simple  group  with  no  settled  abode,  no 
private  lands,  no  political  organization,  no  military  organization ; 
and  it  had  advanced  under  the  leadership  of  such  men  as  Moses, 
Joshua,  Gideon,  Saul,  and  David,  to  the  place  where  there  was  a 
settled  abode,  the  beginnings  of  agriculture,  private  property  in 
lands,  a  growing  city  life,  a  voluntary  military  organization,  and 
a  kingship  which  is  still  elective  and  is  the  servant  of  the  people. 
The  ideals  of  the  early  family  group  have  not  yet  been  imperilled. 
Human  relationships  are  still  dominant  over  commercial  and 
political. 


CHAPTER  III 
FAITH  DESTROYERS 

When  a  nation  changes  its  manner  of  making  a  living,  when  it 
changes  its  political  organization  and  its  social  organization, 
there  is  bound  to  arise  a  crisis  in  its  moral  and  spiritual  life. 
A  well  organized  system  of  rights,  duties  and  customs  is  built 
up  very  slowly  about  the  leading  institutions  of  a  social  order, 
and  when  these  institutions  are  disturbed  the  moral  values  are 
liable  to  be  disturbed  with  them.  In  such  a  transition  stage  it  is 
always  a  question  whether  or  not  the  moral  and  spiritual  values 
will  survive.  The  early  Christian  Church  took  over  the  Roman 
Empire  at  a  terrible  cost  to  itself.  The  world  witnessed  the 
corruption  of  a  vigorous  democratic  movement  through  the  latent 
imperialism  which  existed  in  the  Roman  Empire.  Christianity 
itself  became  an  imperialistic  system.  The  vigorous  Hebrew 
tribes  with  their  clan  organizations  and  their  regard  for  the 
rights  of  the  common  man  took  over  the  city  civilization  of  the 
Amorites  and  the  Canaanites  which  was  essentially  commercial 
and  built  up  on  a  slave  foundation.  All  this  was  done  at  a  cost  to 
the  idealism  of  the  Hebrews  and  introduced  a  controversy  which 
waged  until  the  Exile  put  an  end  to  it.  Let  us  try  to  understand 
this  conquering  of  a  victorious  people  by  the  vanquished. 

The  settlement  in  Canaan  by  the  Hebrews  was  a  herdsman's 
conquest  of  the  hill-country.  The  Hebrews  moved  into  Palestine 
as  a  rural  shepherd  people.  They  took  posses- 
Tne  Conquest  g-on  Q£  ^  jan(j  0f  which  they  knew  how  to  make 
of  the  Hill- 
Country  use-     The  first  chapter  of  Judges  leaves  no  doubt 

as  to   the   general   character  of   the   Hebrews' 
invasion  of  the  Promised  Land. 

28 


FAITH  DESTROYERS  29 

Jehovah  was  with  Judah ;  and  he  drove  out  the  inhabitants  of  the 
hill-country ;  for  he  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley, 
because  they  had  chariots  of  iron.1 

And  the  children  of  Israel  dwelt  among  the  Canaanites,  the  Hittites, 
and  the  Amorites,  and  the  Perizzites,  and  the  Hivites,  and  the  Jebusites : 
and  they  took  their  daughters  to  be  their  wives,  and  gave  their  own 
daughters  to  their  sons  and  served  their  gods.2 

The  picture  portrayed  here  is  fairly  definite.  A  rural  people 
with  flocks  and  herds,  gradually  learning  agriculture,  hold  the 
hill-country.  They  are  the  dominant  military  and  political 
power.  The  traders  and  traffickers  to  whom  they  sell  live  in  the 
towns  and  cities  and  are  members  of  a  class  whose  military  and 
political  power  is  waning.  Hebrew  justice  is  dispensed  from  the 
tribal  law  courts.  The  centers  of  power  are  outside  the  cities, 
and  consequently  are  not  controlled  by  the  city  point  of  view. 

The  nationalization  policy  of  Saul  and  David  meant  the  tak- 
ing over  of  the  cities  and  the  city  dwellers  by  the  Hebrews.  In 
the  fourth  chapter  of  I  Kings  we  meet  the  signi- 
The  Meaning  of  ficant  statement  that  the  twelve  officers  who  pro- 
Nationalization  vided  the  levies  of  men  and  provisions  for 
Solomon's  court  had  their  headquarters  in  the 
walled  cities  largely  inhabited  by  the  Amorites  and  the  Canaan- 
ites, and  in  at  least  six  instances  these  officers  lived  in  cities 
which  up  to  the  time  of  Solomon  had  been  Amorite  strongholds. 

It  is  not  possible  to  over-estimate  the  significance  of  this. 
Hebrew  political  and  military  power  had  moved  from  the  rural 
villages  which  had  the  herdsmen's  point  of  view  to  the  trade 
centers  which  had  the  point  of  view  of  the  traders  and  the 
traffickers.  We  shall  see  a  little  later  how  this  power  was  used 
by  such  men  as  Solomon  and  Rehoboam.  It  is  sufficient  here  to 
call  attention  to  the  fact  that  many  oriental  civilizations  were 

1  Judges  1:19. 
3  Judges  3:  5-6. 


30  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

built  up  on  a  system  of  slavery  which  made  the  peasants  subordi- 
nate to  the  trade  centers.  Goodspeed,  in  his  history  of  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians,  thus  described  the  prevalent  policy : 

The  policy  of  Sargon  also  involved  the  subordination  of  the  Assyrian 
peasantry  to  the  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  the  state  or  to  the 
possessors  of  great  landed  estates.  The  burden  of  taxes  fell  upon  the 
farmers  even  more  heavily.  They  dwindled  away,  became  serfs  on  the 
estate  or  slaves  in  the  manufactories.  .  .  .  Thus  the  state  as  organized 
by  Sargon  became  more  and  more  an  artificial  structure,  of  splendid 
proportions,  indeed,  but  of  foundations  which  were  altogether  insufficient. 

The  vigorous  strength  of  the  Hebrews  is  now  used  to  exploit 
the  original  Hebrew  stock  which  first  settled  in  the  Promised 
Land.  A  rural  population  thus  moves  into  the  cities  and  uses 
its  vigor  to  undermine  itself.  We  shall  study  this  process 
further  in  the  policies  of  Solomon  and  Eehoboam. 

The  Books  of  Kings  begin  the  recital  of  a  study  in  social 

anarchy,  a  story  which  ends  with  the  complete  disintegration  of 

Israel  and  Judah  and  the  mournful  tragedy  of 

Solomon,  Who     the  captivity.     The  two  books  are  more  than  the 

tarts     e  Crame  rec^j  0f  a  series  0f  events.     They  are  the  exposi- 
of  Oriental  J  r 

Luxury  in  tion  °^  a  political  philosophy.     It  is  the  story  of 

Hebrew  Life        the  tragedy  of  a  nation  which  deserts  the  attempt 

to  build  organized  relationships  on  brotherhood 

and  adopts  the  philosophy  of  the  master  class  which  can  do 

injustice  if  it  pleases.     Most  of  us  have  passed  too  lightly  over 

the  comments  repeated  in  the  succeeding  chapters  of  these  two 

books,  that  the  various  kings  made  entangling  alliances  with 

foreign  religious  systems  and  caused  Israel  to  sin.     Baalism  was 

not  only  a  religion,  it  had  adopted  a  political  philosophy.     One 

exposition  of  the  idea  has  become  famous : 

This  will  be  the  manner  of  the  king  that  shall  reign  over  you :  he  will 
take  your  sons,  and  appoint  them  unto  him,  for  his  chariots,  and  to  be 
his  horsemen ;  and  they  snail  run  before  his  chariots ;  and  he  will  appoint 


FAITH  DESTROYERS  31 

them  unto  him  for  captains  of  thousands,  and  captains  of  fifties ;  and  he 
will  set  some  to  plow  his  ground,  and  to  reap  his  harvest,  and  to  make  his 
instruments  of  war,  and  the  instruments  of  his  chariots.  And  he  will 
take  your  daughters  to  be  perfumers,  and  to  be  cooks,  and  to  be  bakers. 
And  he  will  take  your  fields,  and  your  vineyards,  and  your  oliveyards, 
even  the  best  of  them,  and  give  them  to  his  servants.  And  he  will  take 
the  tenth  of  your  seed,  and  of  your  vineyards,  and  give  to  his  officers, 
and  to  his  servants.  And  he  will  take  your  men-servants,  and  your 
maid-servants,  and  your  goodliest  young  men,  and  your  asses,  and  put 
them  to  his  work.  He  will  take  the  tenth  of  your  flocks:  and  ye  shall 
be  his  servants.  And  ye  shall  cry  out  in  that  day  because  of  your  king 
whom  ye  shall  have  chosen  you.1 

Although  Saul  and  David  had  been  kings,  they  had  kept  the 
kingship  a  service  institution.  It  had  been  of  the  people,  for  the 
people  and  by  the  people.  But  Solomon  did  not  abide  by  the 
traditions  of  his  fathers.  He  identified  himself  in  sympathy 
and  in  practice  with  the  point  of  view  of  the  Amorite  civilization 
which  centered  in  the  city.  He  started  as  a  double  personality. 
He  seemed  to  be  the  product  of  heredity  and  the  product  of 
environment.  Solomon  as  a  product  of  heredity  gives  us  that 
magnificent  prayer : 

Give  thy  servant  therefore  an  understanding  heart  to  judge  thy  people, 
that  I  may  discern  between  good  and  evil ;  for  who  is  able  to  judge  thig 
thy  great  people?2 

But  Solomon  as  the  product  of  his  kingly  environment  is  a 
king  surrounded  by  princes  and  an  elaborate  court,  living  in 
oriental  luxury.  The  Bible  is  pitiless  in  the  frankness  with 
which  it  describes  the  oriental  luxury,  the  military  system  and 
the  slave  labor : 

Solomon  had  twelve  officers  over  all  Israel,  who  provided  victuals  for 
the  king  and  his  household ;  each  man  had  to  make  provision  for  a  month 
in    the    year.  .  .  .  And    Solomon's    provision    for    one   day    was    thirty 


*I  Samuel  8:11-18. 
aI  Kings  3:9. 


32  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

measures  of  fine  flour,  and  threescore  measures  of  meal,  ten  fat  oxen,  and 
twenty  oxen  out  of  the  pastures  and  a  hundred  sheep,  besides  harts,  and 
gazelles,  and  roebucks,  and  fatted  fowl.  .  .  .  And  Solomon  had  forty 
thousand  stalls  of  horses  for  his  chariots,  and  twelve  thousand  horsemen. 
.  .  .  And  King  Solomon  raised  a  levy  out  of  all  Israel ;  and  the  levy 
was  thirty  thousand  men.  And  he  sent  them  to  Lebanon,  ten  thousand 
a  month  by  courses ;  a  month  they  were  in  Lebanon,  and  two  months 
at  home.  And  Adoniram  was  over  the  men  subject  to  taskwork.  And 
Solomon  had  threescore  and  ten  thousand  that  bare  burdens,  and  four- 
score thousand  that  were  hewers  in  the  mountains ;  besides  Solomon's 
chief  officers  that  were  over  the  work,  three  thousand  and  three  hundred, 
who  bare  rule  over  the  people  that  wrought  in  the  work.1 

Here  we  have  an  elaborately  worked  out  system  of  conscript 
labor  with  Adoniram  acting  as  head  taskmaster.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  notice  that  when  the  revolt  of  the  peasants  takes  place 
under  Solomon's  son,  Rehoboam,  it  is  Adoniram,  head  of  the 
conscript  labor  gangs,  who  is  sent  to  confer  with  the  peasants, 
and  they  stone  him  to  death  in  their  rage.  This  compromising 
of  Hebrew  social  traditions  was  all  a  part  of  the  compromising 
of  the  religious  traditions  in  which  Solomon  engaged  for  the  sake 
of  strengthening  his  political  standing. 

King  Solomon  loved  many  foreign  women,  together  with  the  daughter 
of  Pharaoh,  women  of  the  Moabites,  Ammonites,  Edomites,  Sidonians, 
and  Hittites.  .  .  .  He  had  seven  'hundred  wives,  princesses,  and  three 
hundred  concubines ;  and  his  wives  turned  away  his  heart.8 

Of  course  what  Solomon  tried  to  do  all  his  nobles  tried  to  do 
and  it  resulted  in  the  placing  in  the  trade  centers  of  Hebrew 
society  an  accumulation  of  people  who  were  of  secondary  im- 
portance, who  yet  held  the  political  and  military  power  of  the 
nation  in  their  hands.  They  were  a  group  of  people  with  ex- 
travagant, luxurious  tastes,  who  had  the  power  to  gratify  these 
tastes  at  the  expense  of  the  common  people.     Taxation  for  main- 

1 1  Kings  4 : 7,  22-26 ;  5 :13-16. 
*  I  Kings  11  :l-3. 


FAITH  DESTKOYERS  33 

taining  the  expense  of  the  court  was  now  enforced  with  great 
rigor.  At  the  head  of  the  government  was  a  class  of  people  who 
took  it  for  granted  that  the  people  existed  for  them. 

In  Eehoboam  the  Baalistic  philosophy  of  the  perfection  of  a 
master  class  idea  gains  the  ascendency.  Eehoboam  had  grown 
up  in  the  atmosphere  of  autocracy.  He  had 
Rehoboam,  known  luxury,   slaves,   and   self-indulgence.     A 

^?°  ^elie^es  a  man  is  governed  by  his  tastes  as  well  as  by  his 
Injustice  convictions.     If  he  is  trained  in  self-indulgence, 

he  will  often  desire  the  life  which  gives  him  the 
privilege  of  self-indulgence.  Rehoboam  came  out  of  a  king's 
court  with  the  desire  to  oppress,  and  he  disrupted  a  nation. 

The  scene  at  Shechem  at  what  was  supposed  to  be  Rehoboam's 
coronation  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  scenes  in  all  history. 
It  proved  to  be  the  clashing  point  of  two  opposite  theories  of  the 
kingship,  the  theory  of  the  Hebrew  brotherhood  and  of  the  Baal 
master  class.  The  people  called  Rehoboam  to  make  him  king. 
They  still  considered  that  no  man  was  king  until  they  elected 
him  to  the  kingship.  Before  they  voted  on  the  matter  they  made 
to  Rehoboam  a  very  interesting  proposition : 

Thy  father  -made  our  yoke  grievous :  now  therefore  make  thou  the 
grievous  service  of  thy  father,  and  his  heavy  yoke  which  he  put  upon  us, 
lighter,  and  we  will  serve  thee.1 

Rehoboam  sent  the  people  away  for  three  days  and  took  stock 
of  the  available  wisdom  with  which  he  was  surrounded.  Two 
classes  of  people  were  consulted  by  him.  One  group  represented 
those  who  were  acquainted  with  the  Hebrew  tradition  that  all 
the  men  of  the  tribe  were  brothers  and  that  the  king  was  to  be  a 
servant  of  the  rest.     They  gave  their  answer  in  these  words : 

If  thou  wilt  be  a  servant  unto  this  people  this  day,  and  wilt  serve  them, 
1 1  Kings  12 :4. 


34  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

and  answer  them,  and  speak  good  words  to  them,  then  they  will  be  thy 
servants  forever.1 

But  Eehoboam  turned  from  the  counsel  of  these  men  and 
sought  advice  from  the  young  comrades  of  the  court  who  had 
been  raised  in  the  philosophy  of  the  master  class.  One  of  the  dis- 
advantages of  being  a  fool  is  that  a  man  is  liable  to  have  foolish 
friends.     They  were  quick  and  ready  with  their  reply : 

Thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  this  people  that  spake  unto  thee,  saying, 
My  little  finger  is  thicker  than  my  father's  loins ;  and  now  whereas  my 
father  did  lade  you  with  a  heavy  yoke,  I  will  add  to  your  yoke :  my  father 
chastised  you  with  whips,  but  I  will  chastise  you  with  scorpions.2 

The  answer  of  the  people  reflects  the  total  cleavage  between 

their  ideas  and  that  of  the  king. 

What  portion  have  we  in  David?  neither  have  we  inheritance  in  the 
son  of  Jesse :  to  your  tents,  O  Israel.8 

Organization  for  them  only  meant  exploitation.     The   ten 

northern  tribes  revolted  from  the  king,  and  the  beginning  of 

Israel's  disintegration  is  at  hand.     Never  again 

e  easants  ^ag  jjjgfojy  seen  a  united  Israel.  Hebrew  life 
Revolt  J 

disintegrated  because  its  leaders  adopted  a  theory 

which  made  all  human  association  ultimately  impossible.  Self- 
pleasing  on  the  part  of  the  leaders  produced  lack  of  faith  and 
disloyalty  on  the  part  of  the  people,  and  social  anarchy  was  the 
result.  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  an  Ephraimite  of  the  hill- 
country  had  led  the  revolt,  but  Ahijah,  a  prophet  of  the  hill- 
country  had  anointed  him  for  the  task.  The  further  develop- 
ment of  the  controversy  between  the  standards  of  justice  of  the 
primitive  Hebrew  clans  and  the  Amorite  commercial  civilization, 
we  shall  take  up  in  connection  with  the  story  of  the  prophets  who 
now  become  the  defenders  of  the  rights  of  the  peasants. 

1 1  Kings  12  :7.  3 1  Kings  12  :16. 

*I  Kings  12:10,  11. 


FAITH  DESTROYERS  35 

In  a  description  of  social  conditions  at  the  time  of  the  develop- 
ing monarchy,  J,  P.  McCurdy  says : 

The  clansmen,  therefore,  at  this  stage,  when  decisive  changes  were 
impending,  were  on  a  pretty  even  footing.  Certain  clans  or  family  groups 
were,  indeed,  more  powerful  than  others ;  but  of  the  heads  of  families  as 
a  whole,  none  were  very  rich  and  none  very  poor.  Nor  was  any  freeman 
so  low  as  that  his  voice  might  not  be  heard  in  council  with  the  highest. 
But  these  relations  began  to  be  seriously  interfered  with  by  the  first 
stages  of  the  process  of  settlement.1  .  .  .  The  freedom  and  looseness 
of  nomadic  government  gives  place  almost  at  a  bound  to  the  despotism  of 
city-states.  General  society  exhibits  a  similar,  almost  paradoxical,  con- 
trast.2 .  .  .  When  all  live  simply  and  frugally,  as  in  the  good  old 
days,  there  is  enough  for  all.  But  luxury  demands  more  than  enough, 
and  always  succeeds  in  getting  it.  Its  success  involves  the  impoverish- 
ment of  the  common  man.  "Fiat  money,"  of  no  value  in  any  age  of  the 
world  without  money's  worth  behind  it,  is  not  issued  in  Israel  even  for 
temporary  relief.  War,  famine,  pestilence,  come  upon  the  nation.  The 
concomitant  privation,  suffering,  anxiety,  and  terror  strike  hardest  upon 
the  lower  middle  class  and  the  very  poor.  The  lingering  consequences 
swell  further  the  roll  of  the  destitute  and  the  helpless.3 

In  another  discriminating  study  of  the  social  conditions  of  this 

period,  we  find  the  following  statement : 

Solomon  oppressed  the  peasantry  by  forced  labor.  This,  of  course, 
intensified  the  national  malice  against  the  house  of  David.  The  taskwork 
of  all  that  part  of  the  nation  lying  north  of  Jerusalem  (the  house  of 
Joseph)  was  in  charge  of  an  official  by  the  name  of  Jeroboam.  This  man, 
moved  by  sympathy,  lifted  up  his  hand  against  the  king  (I  Kings  11 :26f ). 
In  this  action,  he  had  the  support  of  Ahijah,  the  prophet,  who  lived  in  the 
Josephite  village  of  Shiloh.  Although  Solomon  was  not  unseated,  the 
growth  of  insurgency,  as  we  may  call  it,  continued  throughout  his  reign  ; 
and  by  the  time  of  his  death,  the  majority  of  the  people  were  prepared  to 
take  radical  action.* 

The  shift  which  we  have  been  witnessing  in  Hebrew  society 


XJ.  P.  McCurdy,  History,  Prophecy  and  the  Monuments,  Book  Seven, 
p.  561. 
3  P.  569. 
8  P.  572. 
*  Wallis,  Sociological  Study  of  the  Bible,  pages  142-143. 


36  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

is  somewhat  as  follows.  The  community  starts  as  a  nomadic 
clan.  It  is  a  group  with  family  standards,  without  settled  abode ; 
its  different  parts  are  called  by  family  names  and  not  by  geo- 
graphical names.  There  is  no  private  property  in  lands  and  the 
government  of  the  tribe  is  in  the  hands  of  elders  elected  by  the 
tribe.  The  people  all  have  a  part  in  the  great  tribal  assemblies. 
There  is  no  standing  army. 

From  this  first  stage  there  is  a  shift  to  an  intermediate  stage 
when  the  nomadic  clan  organizes  under  an  elected  king.  The 
people  are  learning  agricultural  methods  and  have  taken  on  a 
settled  abode.  They  are  acquiring  private  property.  City  life 
for  them  is  just  beginning.  They  have  a  small  standing  army. 
The  old  democratic  standards  of  the  tribe  still  survive. 

In  the  third  stage  the  hereditary  king  and  the  princes  have 
become  all  powerful  and  have  crowded  into  the  background  the 
tribal  courts  and  the  elders,  who  were  always  very  close  to  the 
people.  More  and  more  authority  has  been  taken  over  by  the 
princes  who  live  in  the  cities  and  have  the  city  point  of  view  in 
commercial  matters.  The  country  has  developed  a  military  class 
and  the  princes  are  often  the  leaders  in  the  standing  army  and 
have  the  power  to  get  what  they  want  in  Hebrew  life.  The 
political  and  economic  control  has  slipped  from  the  country 
village  into  the  city,  and  the  cities  were  built  up  largely  on 
Amorite  traditions.  The  desire  for  display  had  brought  on  con- 
script labor  and  heavy  taxes.  The  Hebrews  were  headed  straight 
for  the  military  career  of  the  big  nations  round  about,  until  the 
prophets  decided  to  interfere. 


CHAPTEK IV 
THE  FIGHT  FOR  JUSTICE  AND  SOCIAL  FAITH 

Hebrew  community  relationships  had  degenerated  in  the 
hands  of  a  military  and  commercial  group  of  leaders.  Under 
the  old  clan  justice  a  man  was  a  man  because  he  was  a  member 
of  the  clan.  Under  the  Baalistic  civilization  a  man  became  a 
commodity,  to  be  manipulated  for  the  glory  of  the  king  and  his 
great  public  building  projects.  Under  David  the  peasants  had 
felt  that  they  really  had  some  portion  in  the  progress  of  the  king- 
dom. They  had  rights  as  well  as  duties.  Under  Solomon  and 
Eehoboam  duties  multiplied  and  privileges  vanished.  Social 
injustice  was  freely  indulged  in  by  the  military  and  commercial 
classes  who  had  lost  their  sense  of  the  right  of  the  common  man. 

It  fell  to  a  group  of  men  of  deep  religious  conviction  and  acute 
social  insight  to  begin  the  process  of  restoration.  These  men 
came  first  of  all  from  the  peasant  classes.  They  voiced  the  rage 
of  the  peasants  at  the  injustice  of  the  political  and  commercial 
system  which  had  been  fastened  upon  them.  They  charged 
the  leaders  of  Israel  with  having  gone  over  to  the  worship  of 
Baal,  and  with  a  selfish  disregard  of  the  standards  of  justice 
which  had  come  down  from  the  primitive  clan  life  of  their 
ancestors. 

No  moral  reformation  can  be  brought  about  until  some  man 
can  draw  a  line  through  human  society  definite  enough  to  be 
appreciated  by  the  people,  on  the  basis  of  which 
Elijah,  the  Man  ^hey  can  decide  for  one  type  of  life  and  against 
a  Moral  Crisis  an°ther.  This  line  must  be  fundamental 
enough  to  form  the  base  line  for  the  building  of 
further  surveys  in  social  morality.     The  great  creative  person- 

37. 


38  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

alities  who  have  changed  the  course  of  human  society  have  done 
80  by  making  clear  to  the  people  some  great  principle  on  the 
basis  of  which  society  can  be  reorganized.  It  fell  to  Elijah  to 
do  this  pioneer  work  in  the  moral  life  of  the  Hebrews.  He 
appears  in  Hebrew  society  in  the  midst  of  the  rather  prosperous 
reign  of  Ahab,  king  of  Israel.  He  came  from  the  peasant  life 
of  Gilead. 

AhaVs  reign  had  in  many  ways  given  evidence  of  material 
power  and  prosperity.  He  had  succeeded  in  warding  off  the 
attacks  of  surrounding  kings  and  in  building  his  kingdom  in 
external  prosperity.  But  he  had  done  this  at  the  expense  of  all 
idealism  and  through  the  encouragement  of  those  tendencies 
which  were  working  for  the  undoing  of  the  Hebrew  people.  He 
had  compromised  the  people  by  marrying  a  daughter  of  a  priest 
of  Baal  in  order  to  encourage  a  commercial  and  political  alliance 
with  the  kingdom  of  Tyre.  Jezebel  had  proven  at  the  court 
to  be  the  organizing  center  of  all  those  forces  which  wanted  to 
see  the  enthronement  of  Baal  worship  in  the  Hebrew  society. 
This  meant  something  more  than  a  change  in  a  national  system 
of  religion.  It  meant  a  change  in  the  whole  social  philosophy 
which  lay  back  of  Hebrew  social  organization. 

One  illustration  suffices  to  tell  what  a  change  Baalism  pro- 
moted in  Hebrew  life.  Ahab  desired  to  build  up  a  large  country 
estate.  That  he  might  extend  the  borders  of  his  estate,  he 
desired  to  acquire  the  vineyard  of  Naboth,  the  Jezreelite. 
Naboth  did  not  want  to  sell.  He  did  not  need  to  sell  since  his 
rights  were  protected  by  an  ancient  land  law  which  guarded  the 
small  landholder  from  encroachment  on  the  part  of  the  nobles 
and  kings.  It  was  a  safeguard  against  the  inequalities  which 
grow  up  when  a  few  secure  monopoly  in  land.  Ahab  did  not 
dare  challenge  the  right  of  Naboth  to  maintain  his  possession 
of  his  vineyard.     He  accepted  the  denial  with  ill-humor  but  with 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  JUSTICE  AND  SOCIAL  FAITH     39 

resignation.  But  Jezebel  had  been  raised  in  a  court  and  under 
influences  where  might  meant  right.  The  worshipper  of  Baal, 
whose  name  meant  "great  landlord,"  had  as  his  ideal  the  acquir- 
ing of  great  lands  without  scruple.  The  first  Book  of  Kings 
tells  the  story: 

Jezebel  his  wife  came  to  him,  and  said  unto  him,  Why  is  thy  spirit 
so  sad,  that  thou  eatest  no  bread?  And  he  said  unto  her,  Because  I 
spake  unto  Naboth  the  Jezreelite,  and  said  unto  him,  Give  me  thy  vine- 
yard for  money ;  or  else,  if  it  please  thee,  I  will  give  thee  another  vineyard 
for  it:  and  he  answered,  I  will  not  give  thee  my  vineyard.  And  Jezebel 
his  wife  said  unto  him,  Dost  thou  now  govern  the  kingdom  of  Israel? 
arise,  and  eat  bread,  and  let  thy  heart  be  merry :  I  will  give  thee  the 
vineyard  of  Naboth  the  Jezreelite.  So  she  wrote  letters  in  Ahab's  name, 
and  sealed  them  with  his  seal,  and  sent  the  letters  unto  the  elders  and  to 
the  nobles  that  were  in  his  city,  and  that  dwelt  with  Naboth.  And  she 
wrote  in  the  letters,  saying,  Proclaim  a  fast,  and  set  Naboth  on  high 
among  the  people :  and  set  two  men,  base  fellows,  before  him,  and  let 
them  bear  witness  against  him,  saying,  Thou  didst  curse  God  and  the 
king.     And  then  carry  him  out,  and  stone  him  to  death.1 

The  plot  was  successfully  carried  out.  Naboth,  the  small 
landholder,  no  longer  stood  in  the  way  of  the  ambitions  of  Ahab. 
Jezebel  turned  the  ill-gotten  vineyard  over  to  Ahab.  Ahab 
went  down  to  Jezreel  to  take  possession  of  his  newly  acquired 
property.  Nothing  is  more  full  of  tragic  comedy  than  this 
attempt  of  Ahab  to  enjoy  that  which  his  conscience  did  not 
justify  him  in  possessing.  He  was  evidently  expecting  a  rebuke 
from  someone  who  represented  the  ancient  conscience  of  Israel 
about  the  rights  of  small  peasant  proprietors  in  their  estate. 
To  Elijah's  greeting, 

Hast  thou  killed,  and  also  taken  possession?2 

Ahab  weakly  replies: 

Hast  thou  found  me,  O  mine  enemy?3 

1 1  Kings  21 :5-10.  » I  Kings  21 :20. 

*J  Kings  21:19, 


40  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

To  which  Elijah  replies : 

I  have  found  thee,  because  thou  hast  sold  thyself  to  do  that  which  is 
evil  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah.1 

The  challenge  which  Jezebel  brought  into  Hebrew  religions 
and  social  life  had  been  accepted  by  Elijah,  the  prophet  from  the 
hill-country  of  Gilead. 

Naboth's  vineyard  seems  to  be  typical  of  the  controversy 
between  the  defenders  of  the  ancient  clan  justice  and  the  Amor- 
ite  civilization  which  for  the  time  being  had  become  dominant 
in  Hebrew  life.  Elijah  commissioned  Elisha  to  anoint  Jehu 
from  Bamoth-Gilead,  to  start  a  revolution  which  will  remove 
the  house  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel.  Jehu  joins  hands  with  Jehona- 
dab,  of  the  Eechabites  (a  sect  which  is  opposed  to  private  owner- 
ship of  land,  evidently  because  of  the  injustice  to  which  it  leads), 
and  two  kings  of  Israel  and  Judah  are  discovered  in  the  vineyard 
of  Naboth  and  there  are  attacked  by  Jehu,  both  of  them  ulti- 
mately slain.  The  controversy  which  is  dividing  Hebrew  civil- 
ization is  in  part  the  fight  of  the  common  man  for  standing  room 
in  Hebrew  economic  and  political  life. 

But  the  line  which  Elijah  established  as  the  base  line  on  which 
the  controversies  of  the  future  were  to  be  waged  is  not  the  line 
which  defines  the  right  of  the  common  man.  He  makes  the 
supremacy  of  Jehovah  the  critical  issue  which  he  forces  on  the 
conscience  of  the  Hebrews,  but  he  does  this  because  the  justice 
of  Jehovah  defends  the  right  of  the  common  man.  In  a  great 
dramatic  contest  on  Mount  Carmel  he  challenged  the  people  of 
Israel  to  choose  whom  they  will  serve. 

And  Elijah  came  near  unto  all  the  people,  and  said,  How  long  go  ye 
limping  between  the  two  sides?  if  Jehovah  be  God,  follow  him;  but  if 
Baal,  then  follow  him.  And  the  people  answered  him  not  a  word.  Then 
said  Elijah  unto  the  people,  I,  even  I  only,  am  left  a  prophet  of  Jehovah ; 

I I  Kings  21 :  20. 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  JUSTICE  AND  SOCIAL  FAITH    41 

but  Baal's  prophets  are  four  hundred  and  fifty  men.  Let  them  therefore 
give  us  two  bullocks ;  and  let  them  choose  one  bullock  for  themselves,  and 
cut  it  in  pieces,  and  lay  it  on  the  wood,  and  put  no  fire  under ;  and  I  will 
dress  the  other  bullock,  and  lay  it  on  the  wood,  and  put  no  fire  under. 
And  call  ye  on  the  name  of  your  god,  and  I  will  call  on  the  name  of 
Jehovah  :  and  the  God  that  answereth  by  fire,  let  him  be  God.  And  all 
the  people  answered  and  said,  It  is  well  spoken.  And  Elijah  said  unto 
the  prophets  of  Baal,  Choose  you  one  bullock  for  yourselves,  and  dress 
it  first ;  for  ye  are  many  ;  and  call  on  the  name  of  your  god,  but  put  no  fire 
under.  And  they  took  the  bullock  which  was  given  them,  and  they 
dressed  it,  and  called  on  the  name  of  Baal  from  morning  even  until  noon, 
saying,  O  Baal,  hear  us.     But  there  was  no  voice,  nor  any  that  answered.1 

With  sarcasm  and  ridicule,  Elijah  now  flays  the  cringing  body 
of  Baal  prophets  before  the  crowd.     Then  he  calls  to  the  people : 

Come  near  unto  me ;  and  all  the  people  came  near  unto  him.  .  .  . 
And  he  put  the  wood  in  order,  and  cut  the  bullock  in  pieces,  and  laid 
U  on  the  wood.  And  he  said,  Fill  four  jars  with  water,  and  pour  it  on 
thv.  burnt-offering,  and  on  the  wood.  And  he  said,  Do  it  the  second  time ; 
and  they  did  it  the  second  time.  And  he  said,  Do  it  the  third  time  ; 
and  they  did  it  the  third  time.  And  the  water  ran  round  about  the  altar ; 
and  he  filled  the  trench  also  with  water.  And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  time 
of  the  offering  of  the  evening  oblation,  that  Elijah  the  prophet  came  near, 
and  said,  O  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Israel,  let  it 
be  known  this  day  that  thou  art  God  in  Israel,  and  that  I  am  thy  servant, 
and  that  I  have  done  all  these  things  at  thy  word.  Hear  me,  O  Jehovah, 
hear  me,  that  this  people  may  know  that  thou,  Jehovah,  art  God,  and  that 
thou  hast  turned  their  heart  back  again.2 

Jehovah   in  the   Heavens!     Lay  bare  thy  mighty  arm  in 

behalf  of  this,  thy  servant,  who  has  risked  everything  in  thy 

cause : 

Then  the  fire  of  Jehovah  fell,  and  consumed  the  burnt-offering,  and  the 
wood,  and  the  stones,  and  the  dust,  and  licked  up  the  water  that  was  in 
the  trench.  And  when  all  the  people  saw  it,  they  fell  on  their  faces :  and 
they  said,  Jehovah,  he  is  God ;  Jehovah,  he  is  God.  And  Elijah  said 
unto  them,  Take  the  prophets  of  Baal ;  let  not  one  of  them  escape.    And 

XI  Kings  18:21-26. 
*  I  Kings  18  :  30-37. 


42  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

they  took  them ;  and  Elijah  brought  them  down  to  the  brook  Kishon,  and 
slew  them  there.1 

The  issue  between  Jehovah  and  Baal  had  been  launched  and 
is  carried  further  by  Amos,  the  Herdsman  of  Tekoa. 

A  certain  man  was  asked  what  he  intended  to  do  with  the 

money  he  had  made  by  oil  speculation.     "I  am  going  to  get  me  a 

black  land  farm,  some  'niggers/  and  some  mules, 

Amos,  and  the     an(j  j  am  going  to  live  in  town."     If  he  could 
Autocracv  at  the 

Trade  Center       on^  ^ave  ^a^  ^ne  rengi°n  °f   Baal  to  add  a 

sense  of  religious  exaltation  to  the  feelings  in 

which  he  was  indulging,  his  happiness  would  have  been  complete. 

Baalism  had  offered  respectability  to  the  state  of  mind  of  the 
big  landlord  who  looked  down  on  a  body  of  serving  tenants. 
Such  men,  with  all  those  who  plotted  with  them,  gathered  in  the 
trade  centers  of  northern  Israel.  The  religion  of  Israel  in  the 
trade  centers  had  been  so  thoroughly  corrupted  that  the  priest 
and  the  prophet  of  the  trade  center  no  longer  were  mindful  of 
the  welfare  of  the  peasants  who  were  doing  the  fundamental 
labor  which  made  the  trade  center  possible.  Secure  in  their 
numbers  and  prosperity,  they  managed  to  shift  the  heavy  burdens 
of  taxes  on  to  the  peasants,  and  no  trade  center  priest  or  prophet 
ever  raised  his  voice  in  protest. 

Eeform  movements  need  a  critic.     They  need  the  man  who 

can  hit  hard,  who  can  ruin  with  an  epigram ;  a  speaker  who  can 

say  things  in  unforgetable  ways,  who  can  tear  off 

Amos,  the  ^e  mas^  wno  can  cut  with  the  fine  edge  of  a 

Spokesman  of  ,         .     ,       .  ,  , 

the  Peasants       moral  scalpel,  who  can  condense  a  moral  cam- 
paign into  a  slogan,  who  can  focus  moral  indig- 
nation until  it  burns.     Such  a  man  did  Amos,  the  shepherd  of 
Tekoa,  prove  to  be.     He  did  not  bring  about  a  reform,  but  before 


1 1  Kings  18 :  38-40. 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  JUSTICE  AND  SOCIAL  FAITH    43 

he  was  through  certain  eminent  nobles  had  lost  their  reputation 
for  piety  and  instead  of  being  idols  had  become  an  exasperation. 

Talent,  ability,  and  luxury  accumulated  at  the  trade  center. 
If  a  priest  and  prophet  wanted  to  close  his  eyes  and  forget  the 
conditions  in  the  open  country,  being  a  prophet  at  the  trade 
center  was  a  comfortable  task.  Rural  populations  naturally 
gravitate  toward  the  trade  centers.  It  is  easy  for  the  com- 
mercial interests  which  center  here  so  to  organize  that  the 
peasants  and  farmers  who  are  scattered  and  isolated  in  the  open 
country  become  the  easy  objects  of  exploitation.  It  has  been 
the  history  of  civilization  that  the  peasants  have  been  exploited 
by  the  trade  center  forces.  Such  was  the  condition  at  Bethel, 
the  king's  sanctuary  of  the  Northern  Kingdom,  where  Amaziah, 
the  local  prophet,  was  evidently  performing  an  acceptable 
service  to  the  nobles  and  the  traders  who  made  up  his  constitu- 
ency. 

But  one  festal  day  when  the  incense  was  burning,  the  music 
playing,  the  people  feasting,  and  the  wives  urging  their  husbands 
to  extravagance  in  display,  there  appeared  at  the  market  place 
a  rough  but  magnetic  figure.  A  man,  whose  mind  had  been 
forming  on  the  slopes  of  Tekoa  near  enough  to  Jerusalem  to 
catch  its  inspiration  and  far  enough  away  to  be  free  from  its 
contamination,  suddenly  appeared  at  the  great  festival  with  a 
startling  message. 

He  knew  that  his  first  task  was  to  dynamite  that  trade  center 
sense  of  security.  This  he  effectively  did  by  turning  back  upon 
them  all  the  indignation  which  they  had  been 
His  Indictment  visiting  on  the  nations  round  about.  He 
began  by  calling  that  indignation  into  play  by 
several  sharp  and  incisive  indictments  for  the  crimes  of  which 
they  had  been  guilty. 

The  people  evidently  followed  him  in  this  when  suddenly  he 


44  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

turned  his  indignation  upon  Judah  for  her  crimes,  and  then  to 

their  utter  amazement  he  brought  this  indictment  on  the  people 

standing  before  him : 

They  have  sold  the  righteous  for  silver,  and  the  needy  for  a  pair  of 
shoes — they  that  pant  after  the  dust  of  the  earth  on  the  head  of  the 
poor,  and  turn  aside  the  way  of  the  meek.1 

He  charged  the  traders  before  him  with  buying  with  false 

measures  and  paying  in  depleted  currency : 

Hear  this,  O  ye  that  would  swallow  up  the  needy,  and  cause  the  poor 
of  the  land  to  fail,  saying,  When  will  the  new  moon  be  gone,  that  we 
may  sell  grain?  and  the  Sabbath,  that  we  may  set  forth  wheat,  making 
the  ephah  small,  and  the  shekel  great,  and  dealing  falsely  with  balances  of 
deceit;  that  we  may  buy  the  poor  for  silver,  and  the  needy  for  a  pair 
of  shoes,  and  sell  the  refuse  of  the  wheat?2 

He  was  talking  with  leaders  who  might  have  been  builders  of 

Israel  like  Moses  and  David.     No  reckless  group  of  profiteers 

were  ever  more  accurately  pictured  than  those  described  by  Amos 

in  the  following  words: 

Woe  to  them  that  are  at  ease  in  Zion,  and  to  them  that  are  secure 
in  the  mountain  of  Samaria,  the  notable  men  of  the  chief  of  the  nations, 
to  whom  the  house  of  Israel  come !  ...  Ye  that  put  far  away  the  evil 
day,  and  cause  the  seat  of  violence  to  come  near ;  that  lie  upon  beds  of 
ivory,  and  stretch  themselves  upon  their  couches,  and  eat  the  lambs  out 
of  the  flock,  and  the  calves  out  of  the  midst  of  the  stall ;  that  sing  idle 
songs  to  the  sound  of  the  viol ;  that  invent  for  themselves  instruments 
of  music,  like  David ;  that  drink  wine  in  bowls,  and  anoint  themselves 
with  the  chief  oils ;  but  they  are  not  grieved  for  the  affliction  of  Joseph.* 

Trade  centers  are  a  by-product  of  a  vigorous  rural  population. 

Trade  centers  built  by  the  exploitation  of  the  peasants  will  be  of 

short  duration.     So  Amos  reminded  those  who  were  listening  to 

him: 

Ye  who  turn  justice  to  wormwood,  and  cast  down  righteousness  to  the 
earth.  .  .  .  They  hate  him  that  reproveth  in  the  gate,  and  they  abhor 

1  Amos  2:7.  "Amos  6:1-6. 

*  Amos  8 :4-6. 


THE  FIGHT  FOE  JUSTICE  AND  SOCIAL  FAITH    45 

him  that  speaketh  uprightly.  Forasmuch  therefore  as  ye  trample  upon 
the  poor,  and  take  exactions  from  him  of  wheat :  ye  have  built  houses 
of  hewn  stone,  but  ye  shall  not  dwell  in  them  ;  ye  have  planted  pleasant 
vineyards,  but  ye  shall  not  drink  the  wine  thereof.1 

The  gross  injustice  on  which  they  were  building  their  civiliza- 
tion negatived  the  value  of  all  their  religious  ceremonies : 

I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts,  and  I  will  take  no  delight  in  your  solemn 
assemblies.  Yea,  though  ye  offer  me  your  burnt-offerings  and  meal- 
offerings,  I  will  not  accept  them  ;  neither  will  I  regard  the  peace-offerings 
of  your  fat  beasts.  Take  thou  away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy  songs ; 
for  I  will  not  hear  the  melody  of  thy  viols.  But  let  justice  roll  down  as 
waters,  and  righteousness  as  a  mighty  stream.* 

Amaziah,,  the  local  priest,  was  greatly  aroused;  his  constitu- 
ency was  being  maligned.  The  reputation  of  the  chief  officers 
for  piety  would  be  greatly  damaged  if  Amos  continued  his  fiery 
denunciation.  Amaziah  carried  a  protest  to  the  king.  It  is 
typical  of  many  another  protest  which  has  gone  up  from  trade 
centers  with  similar  motives.     He  accused  Amos  of  disloyalty. 

Amos  hath  conspired  against  thee  in  the  midst  of  the  house  of  Israel.8 

This  was  his  message  to  King  Jeroboam.  It  is  amazing  how 
patriotic  some  trade  center  extortionists  can  be  when  they  want 
the  support  of  the  king  in  helping  them  exploit  the  peasants. 
His  next  protest  was  directed  toward  Amos : 

0  thou  seer,  go,  flee  thou  away  into  the  land  of  Judah,  and  there  eat 
bread,  and  prophesy  there  :  but  prophesy  not  again  any  more  at  Bethel ; 
for  it  is  the  king's  sanctuary,  and  it  is  a  royal  house.4 

But  Amos  was  too  certain  of  his  cause  to  be  read  out  of  court 
by  such  a  man  as  Amaziah.  His  reply  is  vigorous  and  to  the 
point : 

1  was  no  prophet,  neither  was  I  a  prophet's  son ;  but  I  was  a  herds- 
man, and  a  dresser  of  sycamore-trees :  and  Jehovah  took  me  from  follow- 

1Amos  5:7-11.  sAmos  7:10. 

•Amos  5:21-24.  4Amos  7:12-13. 


46  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

ing  the  flock,  and  Jehovah  said  unto  me,  Go,  prophesy  unto  my  people 

Israel.1 

Amos  frankly  affirms  his  peasant  origin  and  his  divine  com- 
mission to  cry  out  against  the  injustice  which  the  wealthy  classes 
of  the  trade  center  are  visiting  upon  the  people  whom  he  loves. 
He  does  not  so  far  as  we  know  work  any  reforms,  but  the  cause 
of  the  peasants  has  a  champion  who  feels  intensely  and  knows 
how  to  speak  his  message. 

George  Adam  Smith  thus  described  the  social  conditions 
which  obtained  in  Hebrew  life  at  about  this  time : 

"Till  the  Eighth  Century  the  Hebrews  had  been  but  a  kingdom  of 
fighting  husbandmen.  Under  Jeroboam  and  Uzziah  city  life  was  de- 
veloped and  civilization  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word 
Micah,  the  appeared.  .  .  .  But  now  this  further  step  from  the  agri- 

Champion  of  cultural  stage  to  the  mercantile  and  civil  was  equally 

the  Poor  fraught   with   danger.  .  .  .  There   were   all   the   temp- 

tations of  rapid  wealth,  all  the  dangers  of  an  equally 
increased  poverty.  ...  As  in  many  another  land  and  period,  the  social 
problem  was  the  descent  of  wealthy  men,  land  hungry,  upon  the  rural  dis- 
tricts. They  made  the  poor  their  debtors  and  bought  out  the  peasant  pro- 
prietors. They  absorbed  into  their  power  numbers  of  homes,  and  had  at 
their  individual  disposal  the  lives  and  the  happiness  of  thousands  of  their 
fellow  countrymen.  Isaiah  had  cried :  'Woe  unto  them  that  join  house 
to  house,  that  lay  field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  room'2  for  the  common 
people,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  rural  districts  grow  fewer  and  fewer. 
Mfcah  pictures  the  recklessness  of  these  plutocrats,  the  fatal  ease  With 
which  their  wealth  enabled  them  to  dispossess  the  yeomen  of  Judah.  The 
prophet  speaks : 

'Woe  to  them  that  plan  mischief  and  on  their  beds  work  out  evil ;  as 
soon  as  morning  breaks  they  put  it  into  execution,  for  it  lies  in  the  power 
of  their  hands.  They  covet  fields  and  seize  them,  houses,  and  lift  them 
up.     So  they  crush  a  good  man  in  his  home,  a  man  and  his  heritage.'  "3 

Two  other  passages  from  this  champion  of  the  poor  reveal  the 

social  conditions  of  the  time : 

And  I  said,  Hear,  I  pray  you,  ye  heads  of  Jacob,  and  rulers  of  the 

1Amos  7  :14-15.  8  Micah  2  :l-2. 

2  Isaiah  5:8. 


THE  FIGHT  FOE  JUSTICE  AND  SOCIAL  FAITH    47 

house  of  Israel :  is  it  not  for  you  to  know  justice?  Ye  who  hate  the  good, 
and  love  the  evil ;  who  pluck  off  their  skin  from  off  them,  and  their  flesh 
from  off  their  bones ;  who  also  eat  the  flesh  of  my  people,  and  flay  their 
skin  from  off  them,  and  break  their  bones,  and  chop  them  in  pieces,  as 
for  the  pot,  and  as  flesh  within  the  caldron.  Then  shall  they  cry  unto 
Jehovah,  but  he  will  not  answer  them  ;  yea,  he  will  hide  his  face  from 
them  at  that  time,  according  as  they  have  wrought  evil  in  their  doings.1 

The  folly  of  trying  to  build  the  nation  at  the  top  at  the 

expense  of  those  at  the  bottom  is  clearly  set  forth  by  one  who 

knows  what  the  conditions  are  among  the  peasants : 

Hear  this,  I  pray  you,  ye  heads  of  the  house  of  Jacob,  and  rulers  of  the 
house  of  Israel,  that  abhor  justice  and  pervert  all  equity.  They  build  up 
Zion  with  blood,  and  Jerusalem  with  iniquity.  The  heads  thereof  judge 
for  reward,  and  the  priests  thereof  teach  for  hire,  and  the  prophets  thereof 
divine  for  money :  yet  they  lean  upon  Jehovah,  and  say,  Is  not  Jehovah 
in  the  midst  of  us?  no  evil  shall  come  upon  us.  Therefore  shall  Zion 
for  your  sake  be  plowed  as  a  field,  and  Jerusalem  shall  become  heaps, 
and  the  mountain  of  the  house  as  the  high  places  of  a  forest.8 

1  Micah  3  :l-4. 

2  Micah  3 : 9-12. 


CHAPTER  V 

SACRIFICING  A  NATION  IN  THE  NAME  OP  A 
COMMUNITY  OF  JUSTICE 

If  the  moral  values  of  one  generation  are  to  survive  through  a 
period  of  transition  it  will  be  because  some  men  have  such  a 
keen  appreciation  of  these  moral  and  spiritual  values  that  they 
can  carry  them  forward  and  make  them  effective  in  the  new 
social  order  which  comes  because  of  changing  economic  and 
political  conditions.  If  such  men  of  moral  genius  are  at  hand, 
it  may  even  be  that  a  higher  type  of  moral  and  spiritual  life  will 
come  because  of  the  social  changes  which  have  come.  The  later 
prophets  of  Israel  did  not  try  to  force  Israel  back  into  the  social 
mechanism  of  the  tribe.  They  finally  accepted  the  new  political 
organization  under  the  king  and  the  princes.  They  accepted  the 
city  civilization  and  the  settled  agricultural  life.  They  carried 
over  into  this  new  social  order  the  moral  values  which  had  been 
developed  in  the  life  of  the  tribe.  In  place  of  the  prince  who 
oppressed  the  people,  they  lifted  up  the  ideal  of  a  prince  who  was 
a  leader  and  who  ruled  in  justice  and  wisdom  and  with  mercy. 
It  is  interesting  to  notice  this  shift  in  Hebrew  idealism.  In  the 
early  story  the  man  who  founded  the  first  city  was  said  to  be 
under  a  curse.  In  later  Hebrew  life  when  the  prophet  pictured 
an  ideal  society,  it  was  in  terms  of  a  city  of  God  in  which  there 
was  no  injustice.  The  moral  genius  of  the  prophets  and  teachers 
is  revealed  in  their  ability  to  make  effective  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual values  in  the  new  social  order  which  was  inevitable. 

It  is  not  altogether  easy  to  defend  the  patriotism  of  the 
prophets.  It  is  fair  to  say  that  they  never  made  a  bogey  out  of 
nationalism.     They  were  never  enthusiastic  about  the  kingship, 

48 


A   COMMUNITY   OF  JUSTICE  49 

the  nobles,  or  the  wealthy  classes  who  inhabited  the  trade  centers. 
At  a  time  when  the  Hebrews  needed  to  conserve  all  their 
strength  in  order  to  resist  the  threatened  invasion  of  the  big 
agricultural  nations  to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  at  a  time 
when  internal  strife  meant  suicide,  the  prophets  were  responsible 
for  a  number  of  violent  revolutions  in  Hebrew  society. 

It  was  the  Prophet  Ahijah  who  spurred  on  Jeroboam  to  lead 
the  Ten  Tribes  of  the  north  in  revolt.  It  was  Elisha  who 
inspired  the  bloody  revolution  of  Jehu.  The  prophets  were  back 
of  the  revolution  at  the  beginning  of  Josiah's  reign.  It  was 
Jeremiah  who  incurred  the  charge  of  disloyalty  because  he 
refused  to  play  the  game  of  the  court  party  just  before  the  exile. 
The  prophets,  without  doubt,  weakened  the  morale  of  the 
Hebrew  people  in  their  repeated  announcements  that  Israel  and 
Judah  would  be  punished  in  captivity  for  their  sins.  The 
prophets  were  loyal  to  the  Hebrew  community  but  they  were  not 
loyal  to  the  type  of  social  order  which  developed  after  the 
Hebrews  became  a  commercial,  military  nation  which  sacrificed 
the  moral  and  social  values  of  the  clan  brotherhood  which  had 
been  established  under  Abraham  and  Moses.  In  the  name  of  a 
better  sooial  order  of  justice  they  were  willing  to  sacrifice  the 
nation  of  their  day.  They  did  not  accept  the  national  organiza- 
tion of  the  Hebrews  as  final.  They  did  not  exalt  patriotism  as 
a  supreme  virtue. 

The  social  philosophy  of  the  prophets  followed  the  ideals  of 
justice  which  had  come  down  to  them  from  the  laws  and  customs 
of  their  clan.  The  clan  was  a  larger  family  and 
The  Social  some  of  the  standards  of  family  life  obtained 

the  Prophets  within  it.  They  called  each  other  brothers; 
they  were  known  by  their  family  names  and 
not  by  their  geographical  names.  A  clan  gave  a  value  to  a  man 
which  a  commercial  or  political   organization   did  not  give. 


50  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

Jehovah's  welfare  was  identical  with  that  of  the  clan  and  who- 
ever was  a  member  of  this  organization  was  the  object  of 
Jehovah's  care.  The  laws  of  Jehovah  were  the  laws  which  stood 
for  the  welfare  of  the  clan.  Thus  the  prophets  had  a  basis  from 
which  they  criticized  the  state  which  developed  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Baal  ideals.  But  although  they  had  a  basis 
for  criticism,  they  felt  acutely  the  needs  of  their  nation  and 
always  identified  themselves  with  its  welfare.  They  speak  in 
tenderest  terms  of  Israel  and  Judah.  They  love  to  speak  of  them 
as  "God's  vineyard" : 

Let  me  sing  for  my  well-beloved,  a  song  of  my  beloved  touching  his 
vineyard.  My  well-beloved  had  a  vineyard  in  a  very  fruitful  hill :  and 
he  digged  it,  and  gathered  out  the  stones  thereof,  and  planted  it  with  the 
choicest  vine,  and  built  a  tower  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  also  hewed  out  a 
winepress  therein :  and  he  looked  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes,  and 
it  brought  forth  wild  grapes. 

And  now,  O  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  and  men  of  Judah,  judge,  I 
pray  you,  betwixt  me  and  my  vineyard.  What  could  have  been  done 
more  to  my  vineyard,  that  I  have  not  done  in  it?  wherefore,  when  I 
looked  that  it  should  bring  forth  grapes,  brought  it  forth  wild  grapes? 
And  now  I  will  tell  you  what  I  will  do  to  my  vineyard :  I  will  take 
away  the  hedge  thereof,  and  it  shall  be  eaten  up ;  I  will  break  down  the 
wall  thereof,  and  it  shall  be  trodden  down :  and  I  will  lay  it  waste ;  it 
shall  not  be  pruned  nor  hoed ;  but  there  shall  come  up  briers  and  thorns : 
I  will  also  command  the  clouds  that  they  rain  no  rain  upon  it.  For 
the  vineyard  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  is  the  house  of  Israel,  and  the  men 
of  Judah  his  pleasant  plant :  and  he  looked  for  justice,  but,  behold, 
oppression  ;  for  righteousness,  but,  behold,  a  cry.1 

The  clan  morality  had  been  founded  on  the  family.     The  first 
great  constructive  reformer  gains  the  experience  on  which  he 
bases  his  message  for  the  Hebrew   community 
H  from  a  broken  home.     The  laws  of  community 

living  are  not  different  for  the   smaller   com- 
munities of  life  than  for  the  larger.     It  is  possible  to  argue 
*  Isaiah  5:1-7. 


A   COMMUNITY   OF  JUSTICE  51 

from  the  experience  gained  in  a  small  community  and  draw  con- 
clusions for  larger  communities.  Most  men  do  progress  by  the 
extension  of  a  successful  social  experience.  Community  life 
cannot  be  based  on  infidelity.  Faith-breaking  destroys  the 
possibilities  of  home  relationships.  So  argues  the  prophet, 
Hosea,  a  resident  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  about  700  B.  C. 
Disloyalty  broke  up  his  home.  Eedemptive  love  rebuilt  it. 
From  this  experience  Hosea  advances  to  an  acute  analysis  of  the 
woes  of  the  Hebrew  community.  He  finds  that  the  people  have 
been  led  away  in  a  great  spirit  of  infidelity  from  their  former 
love  for  the  righteousness  of  Jehovah  and  this  has  thrown 
Hebrew  life  into  social  chaos.  He  believes  that  redemptive  love 
can  rebuild  Israel  even  as  it  rebuilt  his  own  home. 

When  the  prophets  diagnosed  the  ills  of  the  nation,  they  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  false  leadership  was  responsible  for  the 

degradation  and  corruption  of  Jehovah's  vine- 
Leadership  yard.     By  a  very  direct  process  of  reasoning  they 

came  to  the  conclusion  that  right  leadership 
would  restore  the  nation.  The  doctrine  of  the  Messiah  is  an 
elaboration  and  extension  of  this  idea.  It  is  a  social  philosophy 
based  on  the  power  of  an  individual  to  found  a  community. 
Every  social  philosophy  must  have  a  key  thought.  The  key 
thought  of  the  prophets  is  that  some  day  God  will  send  a  great 
leader  who  will  restore  Israel  through  a  reign  of  righteousness. 

There  shall  come  forth  a  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse,  and  a  branch 
out  of  his  roots  shall  bear  fruit.  And  the  spirit  of  Jehovah  shall  rest 
upon  him,  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  counsel 
and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the  fear  of  Jehovah.  And 
his  delight  shall  be  in  the  fear  of  Jehovah  ;  and  he  shall  not  judge  after 
the  sight  of  his  eyes,  neither  decide  after  the  hearing  of  his  ears ;  but  with 
righteousness  shall  he  judge  the  poor,  and  decide  with  equity  for  the 
meek  of  the  earth.1 


1  Isaiah  11  :l-4. 


£2  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

The  next  important  item  in  this  social  philosophy  is  the  char- 
acter of  the  justice  for  which  the  prophets  stood.  Until  justice 
has  been  defined,  one  is  never  sure  of  its  implications.  Justice 
may  be  something  which  we  practice  in  very  closely  defined 
groups;  it  may  be  something  which  the  strong  render  unto  the 
strong.  For  the  prophets  the  definition  of  justice  came  down 
from  the  old  tribal  life  where  every  member  of  the  tribe  had  a 
share  and  part  in  the  life  of  the  tribe.  For  the  prophets  justice 
meant  justice  for  the  poor  and  needy,  for  the  widows  and 
orphans  of  the  tribe  as  well  as  for  the  strong. 

Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have  chosen :  to  loose  the  bonds  of  wicked- 
ness, to  undo  the  bands  of  the  yoke,  and  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free, 
and  that  ye  break  every  yoke?  Is  it  not  to  deal  thy  bread  to  the  hungry, 
and  that  thou  bring  the  poor  that  are  cast  out  to  thy  house?  when  thou 
seest  the  naked,  that  thou  cover  him ;  and  that  thou  hide  not  thyself 
from  thine  own  flesh?  Then  shall  thy  light  break  forth  as  the  morning, 
and  thy  healing  shall  spring  forth  speedily  ;  and  thy  righteousness  shall  go 
before  thee ;  the  glory  of  Jehovah  shall  be  thy  rearward.  Then  shalt  thou 
call,  and  Jehovah  will  answer ;  thou  shalt  cry,  and  he  will  say,  Here  I 
am.1 

Isaiah  58:6-10. 

Just  because  the  prophets  refused  to  accept  the  boundaries  of 

the  nation  as  the  limitation  of  God's  righteousness,  they  were 

able  to  rise  to  something  of  an  international  conception  of  the 

will  and  purpose  of  God.     Their  statement  of  an  international 

order  based  on  righteousness  antedates  that  of  any  other  of 

the  great  world  thinkers.     They  conceive  of  a  world  order  based 

on  the  righteousness  which  shall  emanate  from  Jehovah's  house. 

It  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  latter  days,  that  the  mountain  of 
Jehovah's  house  shall  be  established  on  the  top  of  the  mountains,  and 
shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills ;  and  all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it.  And 
many  peoples  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye,  and  let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain 
of  Jehovah,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob ;  and  he  will  teach  us  of 
his  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his  paths :  for  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the 
law,   and   the   word   of  Jehovah   from   Jerusalem.    And  he   will  judge 


A   COMMUNITY    OF   JUSTICE  53 

between  the  nations,  and  will  decide  concerning  many  peoples ;  and  they 
shall  beat  their  swords  into  plowshares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning- 
hooks ;  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they 
learn  war  any  more.1 


1  Isaiah  2  :  2-4. 

Ezekiel  comes  to  the  same  conclusion  about  the  universal 

character  of  a  community  of  righteousness  from  the  standpoint 

of  the  individual  man.     Men  are  not  good  by  race  or  class,  and 

because  they  are  good  only  as  individuals  it  is  possible  for  any 

man  to  be  good  and  to  become  a  member  of  the  new  community 

without  regard  to  race  or  class. 

The  word  of  Jehovah  came  unto  me  again,  saying,  What  mean  ye, 
that  ye  use  this  proverb  concerning  the  land  of  Israel,  saying,  The 
fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge? 
As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  ye  shall  not  have  occasion  any  more 
to  use  this  proverb  in  Israel.  Behold,  all  souls  are  mine ;  as  the  soul 
of  the  father,  so  also  the  soul  of  the  son  is  mine :  the  soul  that  sinneth, 
it  shall  die.2 


2  Ezekiel  18:1-4. 

Too  often  we  are  accustomed  to  think  of  the  prophets  as  great 
individuals  who  dealt  directly  with  Hebrew  life  without  consid- 
ering the  way  in  which  the  prophets  influenced 

™.  -n  !__*!  each  other  and  all  contributed  to  the  outlines  of 
The  Prophetic 

Vision  of  the  a  coming  better  social  order  which  was  to  be  the 
Better  Commu-  community  of  God.  Each  makes  his  contribu- 
m^  tion  to  a  common  line  of  thought  which  becomes 

the  property  of  all.  Gradually  the  criticism  of 
the  old  social  order  advances  in  the  minds  of  the  prophets  to  the 
positive  outlining  of  a  new  and  better  one.  Keconstruction  in  its 
final  phase  was  largely  influenced  by  the  constructive  genius  of 
Ezekiel.  With  an  almost  painful  regard  for  detail,  Ezekiel  with 
measuring  rod  outlines  the  dimensions  of  the  better  community, 
locating  even  the  residence  of  priests  and  king  and  the  dwelling 


54  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

of  Jehovah.  The  striking  point  about  his  plan  for  the  new  com- 
munity is  that  it  is  to  be  a  God-governed  community  and  the 
place  of  preeminence  is  given  to  the  temple  instead  of  the  palace 
of  the  king.  In  other  words,  we  have  here  a  distinct  assertion 
on  the  part  of  the  prophets  of  an  ethical  spiritual  community  in 
which  the  rule  is  the  rule  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  in 
which  the  king  has  only  a  subordinate  place.  They  have  achieved 
a  moral  and  spiritual  and  social  triumph  in  thus  conceiving  and 
outlining  an  international  community  based  on  the  righteousness 
of  God  where  ethical  qualifications  constitute  the  basis  of 
membership. 

The  period  in  the  life  of  the  Hebrew  community  which  now 
follows  is  not  that  of  the  life  of  a  nation.     Jewish  life  became  a 
"Kultur"  with  the  synagogue  as  its  center.    It 
The  Fate  of  the  ^  no^  f  a^     j^  ha(j  national  limitations  but  was 
Restored  -it-  -»r  <•  i    •     •  t_x 

Community         marvelously   vigorous.     Men    of   moral   insight 

were  given  leadership.  During  this  period  the 
Jews  display  much  of  the  Puritans'  ruggedness  and  love  of 
freedom.  When  Alexander  the  Great  starts  to  impose  Grecian 
culture  on  the  world,  his  success  is  phenomenal  until  he  reaches 
this  little  Jewish  community.  But  the  Jews  refuse  to  give  up 
their  customs  and  their  law,  and  start  a  fight  for  freedom  in 
religion  which  is  one  of  the  bright  spots  in  human  history  and 
wins  for  the  Jewish  people  religious  freedom  and  for  a  short 
time  even  political  independence.  But  Judaism,  although  en- 
riched by  some  of  the  greatest  literature  of  all  time,  nevertheless 
comes  down  to  the  time  of  Jesus  very  much  a  matter  of  hard 
forms  without  spirit,  a  religion  which  Paul  described  as  having 
fallen  a  victim  to  the  letter  of  the  law.  The  synagogue  had  a 
central  place;  leadership  had  been  won  for  the  prophet  and  the 
priest  and  the  man  of  ethical  purpose. 


CHAPTEE  VI 

FIKST  ATTEMPTS  AT  BUILDING  THE  COMMUNITY 

OF  JUSTICE 

After  the  exile  the  religion  of  Judaism  was  as  widespread  as 
the  Jewish  people  and  they  were  scattered  over  most  of  the 
country  which  bordered  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  But  in  a 
very  peculiar  sense  Jerusalem  was  the  center  of  all  Jewish 
idealism  and  the  building  of  Israel  was  not  separated  from  the 
task  of  building  Jerusalem.  The  vision  of  the  prophets  of  a 
better  world-wide  community  had  always  centered  around 
Jerusalem.  Whoever  accepted  the  task  of  building  the  com- 
munity of  justice  which  they  had  in  mind  interpreted  this  task 
in  terms  of  a  new  and  better  Jerusalem. 

The  first  person  to  attempt  to  carry  out  in  terms  of  community 
reconstruction  the  vision  of  the  prophets  was  a  young  man 
named  Nehemiah.  Many  mourned  the  loss  of  the  ancient  city 
of  David,  but  he  alone  mourned  to  a  purpose.  With  a  crowd 
of  exiles  who  had  made  the  long  journey  from  Jerusalem  to  the 
city  of  Artaxerxes  in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  he  had  gone 
as  a  mournful  pilgrim.  He  had  all  the  likableness  of  youth 
and  culture,  and  had  been  appointed  cup-bearer  to  the  king.  He 
could  have  had  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  a  position  of  security 
and  ease,  but  all  men  are  not  so  constituted  that  such  a  life 
appeals  to  them,  and  the  ruin  of  the  city  of  his  fathers'  sepulcher 
tugged  at  his  heartstrings.     Returning  pilgrims  reported  that : 

The  remnant  that  are  left  of  the  captivity  there  in  the  province  are  in 
great  affliction  and  reproach :  the  wall  of  Jerusalem  also  is  broken  down, 
and  the  gates  thereof  are  burned  with  fire.1 

1  Nehemiah  1:3. 

55 


56  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

His  sorrow  showed  in  his  countenance,  and  one  morning  as  he 

appeared  before  the  king,  the  king  inquired : 

Why  is  thy  countenance  sad ;  .  .  .  this  is  nothing  else  but  sorrow  of 
heart?1 

Then  replied  the  young  man: 

Why  should  not  my  countenance  be  sad,  when  the  city,  the  place  of 
my  fathers'  sepulchres,  lieth  waste,  and  the  gates  thereof  are  consumed 
with  fire.  ...  If  it  please  the  king,  .  .  .  send  me  unto  Judah,  unto  the 
city  of  my  fathers'  sepulchres,  that  I  may  build  it.2 

The  king  was  favorably  inclined  to  his  appeal  and  gave  him 
letters  of  safe  conduct,  and  also  gave  orders  for  the  king's  for- 
esters to  supply  him  with  the  necessary  timber  for  his  work  of 
reconstruction. 

Over  the  long  desert  the  young  man  goes  to  the  ancient  city 

once  famous  as  a  city  of  David  and  Solomon.     Had  not  the 

prophet  said: 

I  will  give  thee  for  a  covenant  of  the  people,  to  raise  up  the  land,  to 
make  them  inherit  the  desolate  heritages ;  saying  to  them  that  are  bound, 
Go  forth;  to  them  that  are  in  darkness,  Show  yourselves.3 

Upon  arriving  at  Jerusalem  he  keeps  his  mission  secret.  He 
does  not  flood  the  community  with  advance  notices  of  what  he 
is  going  to  do  for  its  upbuilding.  Taking  his  beast  one  night 
he  rides  out  over  the  city  and  takes  stock  of  his  task  and  his 
resources.  He  does  not  propose  to  allow  the  wishes  of  a  good 
heart  to  be  a  substitute  for  the  knowledge  of  a  good  head. 
Accurate  information  is  the  price  he  proposes  to  pay  for  leader- 
ship in  community  building.  He  returns  from  the  survey  with 
definite  information.  Seven  of  the  important  gateways  of  the 
city  were  in  ruins ;  the  streets  were  full  of  rubbish ;  walls  were  to 
be  rebuilt ;  and  all  of  this  must  be  done  by  voluntary  labor. 

1  Nehemiah  2:2.  3  Isaiah  49 :  8-9. 

8  Nehemiah  2 :  3-5. 


BUILDING  THE  COMMUNITY  OF  JUSTICE       57 

With  accurate  information  and  a  vision  of  his  task  he  now 
sets  to  work.  His  first  problem  is — to  use  his  own  words — to 
arouse  in  the  people  a  mind  to  build.  Rebuilding  Jerusalem 
was  to  be  a  matter  of  drawing  checks  on  the  good  will  of  the 
community,  and  he  must  first  of  all  establish  that  supply  of  good 
will.  His  methods  are  interesting.  He  calls  together  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  of  the  chief  men  of  the  community  about  a 
banquet  table  which  is  supplied  at  his  own  expense.  For  fifty- 
two  days  he  maintains  this  community  table  at  the  daily  cost  of 
one  ox,  six  choice  sheep,  a  large  number  of  fowls,  and  every  ten 
days  a  supply  of  wine.  It  is  the  price  he  must  pay  for  building 
the  community  morale.  In  a  masterful  way  he  presents  his 
case.  He  calls  to  their  minds  the  ancient  glory  of  the  city  they 
had  known.  He  opens  to  them  his  plan.  He  paints  for  them 
the  glory  of  the  city  that  can  be : 

Let  us  build  up  the  wall  of  Jerusalem,  that  we  be  no  more  a  reproach.1 

And  the  people  said, 
Let  us  rise  up  and  build.2 

And  they  strengthened  their  hands  for  the  great  work.  The 
fight  for  community  morale  had  won. 

But  the  fight  does  not  end  here.  If  Nehemiah  had  been 
able  only  to  arouse  enthusiasm  and  not  to  organize  it  he  would 
have  been  a  failure.  The  master  workman  is  now  revealed  as  he 
divides  the  people  up  into  their  natural  groupings  and  sets  each 
group  to  work  over  against  the  task  to  which  it  is  best  adapted. 
Then  the  miracle  of  community  organization  takes  place. 
Jerusalem  was  not  lacking  in  resources.  What  it  needed  was 
someone  to  organize  and  to  direct  its  resources. 

Let  us  not  think  for  one  moment,  however,  that  Nehemiah  can 

1Nehemiah  2:17. 
*  Nehemiah  2  :18. 


58  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

carry  this  project  for  community  betterment  through  without 
opposition.  Sanballat  and  Tobiah,  the  Ammonite,  were  present 
on  this  occasion  in  order  that  it  might  be  typical  of  all  other 
occasions  of  its  kind.  The  way  in  which  Nehemiah  meets  this 
petty  piece  of  community  persecution  ought  to  be  typical  of  all 
who  have  this  opposition  to  meet.  Sanballat  and  Tobiah  evi- 
dently have  ulterior  reasons  for  not  wanting  Jerusalem  to  become 
a  better  city.  They  had  evidently  been  profiteering  on  Jerusa- 
lem's misery.  The  more  abject  the  misery  of  Jerusalem,  the 
happier  was  Sanballat.  He  sees  in  Nehemiah  someone  who  is 
about  to  rob  him  of  his  prey.  The  opposition  of  these  two  men 
takes  vicious  expression. 

They  first  try  ridicule.  This  is  the  resort  of  many  who  try  to 
discourage  movements  for  community  betterment. 

What  are  these  feeble  Jews  doing?1 

asks  Sanballat. 

Even  that  which  they  are  building,  if  a  fox  go  up,  he  shall  break  down 
their   stone   wall.* 

says  Tobiah,  the  Ammonite. 

Public  ridicule  is  hard  to  bear  but  neither  Nehemiah  nor  his 
people  are  turned  aside  from  their  project. 

The  next  attempt  of  these  two  obstructors  of  public  welfare  is 

a  treacherous  effort  to  get  Nehemiah  to  come  down  to  one  of  the 

villages  on  the  plain  of  Ono  that  they  might  entrap  him.     It  is 

in  response  to  this  that  Nehemiah  gives  his  famous  reply: 

I  am  doing  a  great  work,  so  that  I  cannot  come  down :  why  should  the 
work  cease,  whilst  I  leave  it,  and  come  down  to  you?8 

A  man  engaged  in  positive  constructive  work  cannot  always  be 

wasting  his  time  with  obstructers  of  the  public  welfare. 

1  Nehemiah  4:2.  'Nehemiah  6:3. 

'Nehemiah  4:3. 


BUILDING  THE  COMMUNITY  OF  JUSTICE       59 

The  third  attempt  at  blocking  the  building  of  the  wall  was  a 
vicious  piece  of  propaganda  through  which  Sanballat  sought  to 
poison  the  mind  of  Artaxerxes  with  the  thought  that  Nehemiah 
is  starting  a  rebellion.  He  circulated  an  open  letter  to  this 
effect. 

It  is  reported  among  the  nations,  and  Gashmu  saith  it,  that  thou  and 
the  Jews  think  to  rebel ;  for  which  cause  thou  art  building  the  wall :  and 
thou  wouldst  be  their  king,  according  to  these  words.1 

When  we  remember  that  Nehemiah  was  trying  to  hold  a  large 
number  of  people  in  voluntary  labor  on  a  great  project,  we 
realize  the  treacherous  nature  of  this  scheme  which  would  make 
the  people  feel  that  they  were  partners  to  a  plan  which  might  any 
day  bring  the  cavalry  of  Artaxerxes  down  upon  them. 

The  final  attempt  to  injure  the  influence  of  Nehemiah  came 

in  the  form  of  an  appeal  to  his  self-interest  whereby  Shemaiah 

urged  him  to  take  refuge  in  the  temple. 

Let  us  meet  together  in  the  house  of  God,  within  the  temple,  and  let  us 
shut  the  doors  of  the  temple :  for  they  will  come  to  slay  thee ;  yea,  in  the 
night  they  will  come  to  slay  thee.2 

To  which  Nehemiah  replied : 

Should  such  a  man  as  I  flee?  and  who  is  there,  that,  being  such  as  I, 
would  go  into  the  temple  to  save  his  life?    I  will  not  go  in.8 

Nehemiah  proved   invincible  to  every  form   of   community 

persecution  and  opposition,  and  Sanballat  and  Tobiah  retired 

defeated  from  the  scene  of  action. 

So  the  wall  was  finished  in  the  twenty  and  fifth  day  of  the  month 
Elul,  in  fifty  and  two  days.* 

But  Nehemiah  knows  that  it  is  not  enough  to  fortify  a  com- 
munity from  without.  Communities  must  be  fortified  from 
within.     A  city  wall  does  not  guarantee  a  city.     The  great  forti- 

1  Nehemiah  6:6.  3  Nehemiah  6 :11. 

8  Nehemiah  6:10.  *  Nehemiah  6:15. 


60  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

fications  of  community  life  are  erected  in  the  social  organization 
of  the  people,  and  Nehemiah  now  turns  his  attention  to  the 
erection  of  those  inner  fortifications  which  alone  can  guarantee 
a  stable  human  society. 

He  seeks  first  of  all  to  reorganize  the  business  life  of  the  com- 
munity on  the  basis  of  brotherhood.  He  shows  himself  loyal 
to  the  standards  of  the  prophets.  He  supplants  exploitations  by 
cooperation.  We  read  that  the  people  had  been  enslaved  by  the 
unscrupulous  business  men  of  the  day.  They  had  mortgaged 
their  lands  and  sold  their  children  into  slavery  in  order  to  obtain 
from  certain  men  the  necessities  of  life. 

Then  there  arose  a  great  cry  of  the  people  and  of  their  wives  against 
their  brethren  the  Jews.  For  there  were  that  said,  We,  our  sons  and  our 
daughters,  are  many:  let  us  get  grain,  that  we  may  eat  and  live.  Some 
also  there  were  that  said,  We  are  mortgaging  our  fields,  and  our  vine- 
yards, and  our  houses :  let  us  get  grain,  because  of  the  dearth.  There 
were  also  that  said,  We  have  borrowed  money  for  the  king's  tribute  upon 
our  fields  and  our  vineyards.  Yet  now  our  flesh  is  as  the  flesh  of  our 
brethren,  our  children  as  their  children :  and,  lo,  we  bring  into  bondage 
our  sons  and  our  daughters  to  be  servants,  and  some  of  our  daughters  are 
brought  into  bondage  already :  neither  is  it  in  our  power  to  help  it ;  for 
other  men  have  our  fields  and  our  vineyards.1 

Calling  these  men  before  him,  Nehemiah  makes  them  a  most 
remarkable  speech.     He  says : 

We  after  our  ability  have  redeemed  our  brethren  the  Jews,  that  were 
sold  unto  the  nations ;  and  would  ye  even  sell  your  brethren,  and  should 
they  be  sold  unto  us?  Then  held  they  their  peace,  and  found  never  a 
word.  Also  I  said,  The  thing  that  ye  do  is  not  good :  ought  ye  not  to  walk 
in  the  fear  of  our  God,  because  of  the  reproach  of  the  nations  our 
enemies?  And  I  likewise,  my  brethren  and  my  servants  do  lend  them 
money  and  grain.  I  pray  you,  let  us  leave  off  this  usury.  Restore,  I 
pray  you,  to  them,  even  this  day,  their  fields,  their  vineyards,  their 
oliveyards,  and  their  houses,  also  the  hundredth  part  of  the  money,  and 
of  the  grain,  the  new  wine,  and  the  oil,  that  ye  exact  of  them.     Then 


1  Nehemiah  5  :l-5. 


BUILDING  THE  COMMUNITY  OF  JUSTICE         61 

said  they,  We  will  restore  them,  and  will  require  nothing  of  them ;  so 
will  we  do,  even  as  thou  sayest.  Then  I  called  the  priests,  and  took  an 
oath  of  them,  that  they  would  do  according  to  this  promise.  Also  I  shook 
out  my  lap,  and  said,  So  God  shake  out  every  man  from  his  house,  and 
from  his  labor,  that  performeth  not  this  promise  ;  even  thus  be  he  shaken 
out,  and  emptied.  And  all  the  assembly  said,  Amen,  and  praised 
Jehovah.1 

It  was  a  great  speech.  The  city  which  he  was  building  by 
sacrifice  was  not  to  be  the  hunting  ground  of  those  who  were 
interested  only  in  gain.  The  law  of  successful  community  life  is 
service  and  not  exploitation.  The  primary  condition  of  all 
community  progress  is  community  good  will.  The  community 
which  is  not  a  success  in  good  will  cannot  ultimately  be  a  busi- 
ness success.  Brotherhood  affords  the  only  basis  for  any 
economic  structure. 

But  Nehemiah  does  not  stop  with  the  reorganization  of  busi- 
ness life.  He  knows  that  the  outward  institutions  of  social  life 
are  but  the  outward  expression  of  inward  ideas.  He  seeks  to 
guarantee  the  community,  not  by  leaving  it  to  evolve  out  of  its 
own  conscience  adequate  social  practice  and  institutions,  but  he 
seeks  to  guarantee  that  conscience  by  having  Ezra,  the  scribe,  on 
stated  occasions  read  for  them  the  Mosaic  law  and  lead  them  in 
the  celebration  of  the  great  national  festivals. 

All  the  people  gathered  themselves  together  as  one  man  into  the  broad 
place  that  was  before  the  water  gate ;  and  they  spake  unto  Ezra  the 
scribe  to  bring  the  book  of  the  law  of  Moses,  which  Jehovah  had  com- 
manded to  Israel.  And  Ezra  the  priest  brought  the  law  before  the 
assembly,  both  men  and  women,  and  all  that  could  hear  with  understand- 
ing, upon  the  first  day  of  the  seventh  month.  And  he  read  therein  before 
the  broad  place  that  was  before  the  water  gate  from  early  morning  until 
midday,  in  the  presence  of  the  men  and  the  women,  and  of  those  that 
could  understand ;  and  the  ears  of  all  the  people  were  attentive  unto  the 
book  of  the  law.2 


1Nehemiah  5:8-13. 
2  Nehemiah  8  :l-3. 


62  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

A  community  is  not  an  established  community  until  it  holds  in 
common  great  memories,  a  common  mind  for  great  tasks,  great 
hopes,  and  great  convictions.  In  the  laws  and  festivals  of 
ancient  Israel,  in  the  teachings  of  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
ISTehemiah  found  the  expression  of  the  inward  faith,  hope,  and 
conviction  which  had  been  the  sustaining  power  of  ancient  Israel. 
He  is  not  satisfied  until  these  have  become  the  inner  life  of  his 
new  community.  He  seeks  thus  to  build  the  common  mind 
which  is  after  all  the  essence  of  community  life. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  UNIVERSAL  COMMUNITY 

When  Jesus  of  Nazareth  summons  men  with  the  call,  "the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand,"  it  is  not  a  call  unrelated  to 
Jewish   experience.     For   almost   two   thousand 
years  there  had  been  accumulating  in  Hebrew 
a    enng     e      thought  a  passion  for  a  righteous  social  order. 
Hebrew  Com-      Great  successes  and  great  failures  had  demon- 
munity  Ex-  strated    the    Tightness    and    the    wrongness    of 

perience  certain  theories  of  life.     Certain  distinct  gains 

had  been  made.  Certain  experiments  had  been 
tried  and  did  not  need  to  be  repeated.  In  the  Hebrew  labora- 
tory, the  power  of  a  great  personality  to  found  a  community  had 
been  demonstrated.  The  prophets  had  formulated  the  thought 
and  vision  of  a  community  based  not  on  race  or  on  nationality 
but  on  the  ethical  and  spiritual  qualities  of  manhood.  The 
fallacy  of  a  social  order  based  on  autocratic  self -pleasing  on  the 
part  of  the  rulers  had  also  been  demonstrated.  The  integrating 
healing  power  of  the  principles  of  brotherhood  had  been  experi- 
enced by  the  Hebrews.  The  way  had  been  prepared  for  someone 
who  would  gather  up  in  himself  the  fruits  of  the  Hebrew  com- 
munity experience  and  lay  the  foundation  for  a  social  order 
founded  on  justice. 

There  were  certain  communities  of  compulsion  and  fear  which 
furnished  the  dark  background  for  Jesus'  life. 

It  is  impossible  to  understand  the  thought  of  Jesus  concerning 

63 


64  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

community  life  without  understanding  the  Eoman  Empire  which 
was  the  great  world  community  of  his  day. 
Empire  World  orders  have  a  way  of  dictating  terms  to 

the  smaller  communities  of  the  world.  It  is 
hard  to  fight  against  a  world  order.  Those  who  succeed  are  the 
creative  persons  of  history.  Had  Germany  triumphed  and 
succeeded  in  imposing  her  imperialistic  scheme  on  the  world,  we 
should  have  had  something  comparable  to  the  world  order  which 
Jesus  knew.  The  result  of  such  a  triumph  would  have  been  a 
triumph  for  an  ideal  of  life  as  well  as  a  political  system,  and 
this  ideal  would  have  penetrated  and  have  influenced  the  remot- 
est community  of  the  world,  just  because  it  had  become  the 
dominant  community  ideal  in  the  world. 

Rome  had  triumphed.  She  had  imposed  her  political  system 
on  all  the  nations  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  It  was 
a  system  built  up  on  compulsion  of  force  and  the  appeal  to 
fear.  It  was  a  theocracy  in  which  emperor  worship  was  domi- 
nant. Eoman  arms  made  common  cause  with  the  local  recog- 
nized authorities  in  every  annexed  nation.  To  a  people  with  the 
freedom  traditions  of  the  Jews  it  was  compulsion,  foreign,  alien, 
and  to  be  endured  only  because  the  people  feared  to  throw  it  off. 
That  Jesus  knew  the  hatred  of  the  Jew  for  Rome  is  perfectly 
clear  in  his  dealing  with  the  captious  question  about  the  giving 
of  tribute  to  Csesar.  The  question  itself  has  no  point  if  there 
does  not  lie  back  of  it  a  great  popular  hatred  toward  Rome 
which  made  it  dangerous  for  a  man  to  advocate  the  paying  of  the 
imperial  tax. 

The  hatred  of  Rome  was  also  reflected  in  the  popular  estimate 
of  a  publican  who  was  the  official  representative  of  Rome  in  the 
collection  of  taxes.  He  had  neither  social  standing  nor  religious 
privileges.  The  Jew  hated  him  because  he  stood  for  the  alien 
community  which  had  robbed  the  Jew  of  his  freedom.     Jewish 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  UNIVERSAL  COMMUNITY    65 

hatred  of  Rome  had  finally  organized  in  a  party  of  the  Zealots 

which,  like  the  Sinn  Fein  Party  of  Ireland,  was  pledged  to 

Jewish  independence  and  the   realization  of   Jewish  national 

hopes.     That  Jesus  felt  with  his  countrymen  the  hatred  of  this 

community  of  compulsion  and  fear  there  can  be  no  question. 

When  Satan  led  Him  to  the  lofty  mountain  and  showed  Him  all 

the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  offered  Him  world  domination 

on  Satan's  terms,  it  was  the  dramatic  plea  of  Jewish  opinion 

for  a  leader  who  should  build  another  world  kingdom  with  the 

Jew  occupying  the  place  which  the  Roman  held  in  the  world 

order  which  the  Jew  hated  so  much. 

The  other  theocratic  community  of  compulsion  based  on  fear 

was  the  decadent  Judaism  of  Jesus'  time.     Judaism  at  its  best 

was  not  a  religion  of  legal  compulsion  based 
Decadent  _  * 

Judaism  on    aPPeals    to    fear.      In    the    reconstruction 

days  following  the  exile,  the  ideal  of  the 
prophets,  where  the  spirit  of  God  was  to  be  the  teacher  of  men 
and  men  were  to  live  together  in  brotherly  relationships,  had  for 
a  time  been  partially  realized.  But  the  priest  had  triumphed  in 
Hebrew  life,  and  Hebrew  religion  in  the  fight  which  it  had  made 
for  the  preservation  of  its  customs  against  the  Hellenism  of 
Alexander  the  Great  had  become  hard  and  legalistic.  The 
Pharisees,  like  the  Puritans  of  three  centuries  ago,  had  won  a 
noble  fight  for  religious  freedom  but  bore  in  themselves  the  in- 
tolerant temper  toward  all  which  they  had  once  developed  in  self- 
defense  against  Grecian  arms.  Jewish  religion  while  professing 
freedom  had  become  a  matter  of  laws,  customs,  and  forms  im- 
posed upon  the  people  by  threats  of  various  kinds  of  social  pun- 
ishment. A  religion  which  had  once  possessed  wide  outlook  and 
a  universal  appeal  had  been  narrowed  until  only  a  Jew  with  all 
the  limitations  of  a  Jew  could  enjoy  its  privileges.  It  had  grown 
petty,  and  over  those  who  would  submit,  it  had  grown  tyrannical. 


66  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

Jesus  has  been  proclaimed  as  the  chief  revolt  leader  of  all 

history.     He  has  been  pictured  as  the  leader  of  the  proletariat 

who    sought    to    organize    the    seething    forces 

Jesus'  Vision  of  0£  un^st  jn  the  Roman  Empire.     Jesus  taught 

Community  a    Pr0I°und    doctrine    of    self-respect    but    He 

was  interested  in  something  more  than  the 
starting  of  a  revolt.  A  civilization  which  can  stand  alone 
is  more  than  a  reaction.  No  permanent  society  was  ever 
maintained  on  the  basis  of  a  revolt.  The  verdict  of  Jewish 
history  was  all  against  such  a  plan.  Jesus  looked  forward  to  a 
society  in  which  men  loved  justice  more  than  do  those  who  are 
willing  just  to  rebel  against  injustice  in  others.  He  looked 
for  a  society  characterized  by  moral  and  spiritual  independence 
gained  through  discipline  more  severe  than  that  of  Scribe  and 
Pharisee  where  men  through  self-criticism  had  learned  the  art 
of  being  just  and  giving  justice  to  others. 

Jesus  had  drunk  deep  from  the  springs  of  Hebrew  idealism 
which  had  been  established  by  the  prophets.  He  had  a  vision 
of  a  community  held  together  by  something  stronger  than  the 
compulsion  of  force  and  fear.  With  true  social  insight  He  saw 
the  coming  disintegration  of  the  Roman  Empire  due  to  the 
hatreds  which  it  inevitably  bred.  His  critique  of  the  old  order 
was  severe.  It  was  wrong  in  principle  and  must  ultimately 
break  down. 

And  Jesus  called  them  to  him,  and  saith  unto  them,  Ye  know  that  they 
who  are  accounted  to  rule  over  the  Gentiles  lord  it  over  them ;  and  their 
great  ones  exercise  authority  over  them.  But  it  is  not  so  among  you : 
but  whosoever  would  become  great  among  you,  shall  be  your  minister; 
and  whosoever  would  be  first  among  you,  shall  be  servant  of  all.  For 
the  Son  of  man  also  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and 
to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many.1 

Abraham  and  Moses  had  been  organizing  centers  in  the  old 


'Mark  10:42-45. 


THE  FOUNDEK  OF  THE  UNIVEKSAL  COMMUNITY    67 

community.     Jesus  offers  Himself  as  a  center  of  the  new  com- 
munity.    He  would  be  the  vine,  others  would  be 

~.     ~  ,.._  the  branches.     Some  men  try  to  bind  others  to 

The  Personality  ;       . 

of  Jesus  in  the     them  through  fear.     He  would  bind  men  by  the 

New  Commu-      strongest    tie    which    society    knows — love    and 

mty  social  faith.     Society  shot  through  and  through 

with  suspicion  would  find  faith  returning  when 
men  came  in  contact  with  Him.  Even  in  his  death  He  expected 
to  draw  all  men  to  Him.  The  idea  is  almost  startling  in  its 
simplicity.  If  one  man  could  ruin  the  world,  a  personality  such 
as  Jesus  could  save  it  by  becoming  the  organizing  center  of  a 
new  order  of  men. 

The  most  striking  symbol  of  the  new  order  was  the  fellowship 
supper  at  which  his  disciples  partook  of  the  bread  and  wine  which 

was  the  symbol  of  their  mystic  union  with  Him. 
S  Those  who  were  members  of  his  community  were 

held  together  by  something  stronger  than  force 
and  fear.  It  was  the  fellowship  of  those  who  had  been  won  to 
faith  through  their  contact  with  Him.  He  had  been  worthy  of  a 
great  trust  and  had  created  faith  in  them.  Faith  was  beginning 
to  come  back  into  the  world  when  they  had  faith  in  Him.  The 
integration  of  the  community  had  begun  when  they  gave  to  Him 
trust  and  loyalty.     They  were  not  to  be  his  slaves  but  his  friends. 

This  is  my  commandment,  that  ye  love  one  another,  even  as  I  have 
loved  you.  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down 
his  life  for  his  friends.  Ye  are  my  friends,  if  ye  do  the  things  which  I 
command  you.  No  longer  do  I  call  you  servants ;  for  the  servant  knoweth 
not  what  his  lord  doeth :  but  I  have  called  you  friends ;  for  all  things  that 
I  heard  from  my  Father  I  have  made  known  unto  you.1 

It  was  a  community  freed  from  the  old  compulsion  of  heredity. 
A  man  did  not  need  to  be  a  Jew  to  be  a  citizen.     The  only 

'John  15:12-15, 


68  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

foreigner  in  this  community  was  a  bad  man,  and  every  good  man 

had  a  right  to  citizenship. 

There  come  his  mother  and  his  brethren  ;  and,  standing  without,  they 
sent  unto  him,  calling  him.  And  a  multitude  was  sitting  about  him ;  and 
they  say  unto  him,  Behold,  thy  mother  and  thy  brethren  without  seek 
for  thee.  And  he  answereth  them,  and  saith,  Who  is  my  mother  and  my 
brethren?  And  looking  round  on  them  that  sat  round  about  him,  he 
saith,  Behold,  my  mother  and  my  brethren !  For  whosoever  shall  do 
the  will  of  God,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother.1 

Jesus  definitely  expected  that  his  new  community  character- 
ized by  social  faith,  justice,  and  brotherliness  would  supplant  the 
old  community  based  on  autocratic  compulsion,  fear,  force,  and 
naturalistic  conditions.  He  had  every  right  to  expect  such  a 
triumph.  Communities  based  on  force  and  fear  have  always 
developed  within  themselves  the  antipathies  which  cause  them 
to  disintegrate.  The  chain  has  not  yet  been  forged  which  can 
bind  people  together  who  hate  each  other.  Jesus  was  not  an  idle 
dreamer.  He  was  the  keenest  of  social  thinkers.  He  had  seen 
small  communities  like  the  home  community  which  centered 
around  a  good  father  grow  strong  and  persist  through  all  human 
vicissitudes.  He  had  all  of  the  Hebrew  experience  back  of  Him. 
If  He  could  build  a  world  community  in  which  men  would  have 
the  spirit  of  their  good  Father  who  was  in  Heaven  He  could  have 
a  community  founded  upon  the  rocks  which  all  the  floods  and 
storms  which  sweep  through  human  history  could  not  destroy. 
He  was  perfectly  confident  that  God  had  called  Him  to  found 
such  a  community  because  He  believed  in  God.  He  saw  its 
realization  coming  in  the  Heavens  and  the  supplanting  of  the  old 
world  order  was  at  hand.  In  parable  and  in  story  He  set  forth 
his  optimistic  convictions. 

Another  parable  set  he  before  them,  saying,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
like  unto  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  which  a  man  took,  and  sowed  in  his 

1  Mark  3:31-35. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  UNIVERSAL  COMMUNITY    69 

field :  which  indeed  is  less  than  all  seeds ;  but  when  it  is  grown,  it  is 
greater  than  the  herbs,  and  becometh  a  tree,  so  that  the  birds  of  the 
heaven  come  and  lodge  in  the  branches  thereof. 

Another  parable  spake  he  unto  them  :  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto 
leaven,  which  a  woman  took,  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal,  till  it 
was  all  leavened.1 

Jesus  anticipated  the  ultimate  triumph  of  his  community 
because  He  believed  that  it  had  power  to  supplant  the  old.  He 
had  heartily  and  completely  lost  faith  in  the  old  type  of  com- 
munity. He  said  it  was  fit  for  the  Valley  of  Gehenna  where  lay 
the  discarded  refuse  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  In  other  words  it 
was  ready  to  be  scrapped.  He  was  not  a  dreamer  of  visions 
which  were  impossible  for  this  world.  It  was  the  old  order  that 
was  impossible.  It  could  never  develop  anything  but  human 
hate  and  human  hate  was  the  negation  of  community  life.  His 
order  alone  was  possible.  It  gave  promise  of  joy,  happiness, 
comradeship,  a  community  of  the  spirit,  where  there  would  be 
youth  and  freshness  and  growth,  a  brotherhood  which  men 
could  never  outgrow  and  which  would  be  the  crowning  glory  of 
the  creative  work  of  God  the  Father. 

Jesus  never  minimized  to  Himself  the  cost  which  must  be  paid 
for  the  new  community.  It  was  a  good  bargain  at  any  price; 
it  was  a  pearl  worth  trading  all  one's  possessions 
The  Price  of  ^  secure>  jje  kep^  continually  warning  men 
Community  against  the  fallacy  of  hoping  to  secure  the  new 

community  at  too  low  a  cost.  It  called  for  a 
discipline  of  the  body  and  mind  more  exacting  than  that  of 
Scribe  or  Pharisee.  It  called  for  a  people  of  moral  inde- 
pendence. 

Now  there  went  with  him  great  multitudes :  and  he  turned,  and  said 
unto  them,  If  any  man  eometh  unto  me,  and  hateth  not  his  own  father, 


Matthew  13:31-33. 


70  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and  brethren,  and  sisters,  yea,  and 
his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.  Whosoever  doth  not  bear  his 
own  cross,  and  come  after  me,  cannot  be  my  disciple.  For  which  of 
you,  desiring  to  build  a  tower,  doth  not  first  sit  down  and  count  the 
cost,  whether  he  have  wherewith  to  complete  it?  Lest  haply,  when  he 
hath  laid  a  foundation,  and  is  not  able  to  finish,  all  that  behold  begin  to 
mock  him,  saying,  This  man  began  to  build,  and  was  not  able  to  finish. 
Or  what  king,  as  he  goeth  to  encounter  another  king  in  war,  will  not  sit 
down  first  and  take  counsel  whether  he  is  able  with  ten  thousand  to  meet 
him  that  cometh  against  him  with  twenty  thousand?  Or  else  while  the 
other  is  yet  a  great  way  off,  he  sendeth  an  ambassage,  and  asketh  condi- 
tions of  peace.  So  therefore  whosoever  he  be  of  you  that  renounceth  not 
all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.1 

The  price  of  the  new  community  was  the  high  price  of  self- 
discipline  in  the  giving  of  justice.  All  depended  on  whether  He 
could  secure  men  to  follow  Him  who  loved  justice  enough  to 
give  it  and  give  it  first,  and  who  would  give  it  for  the  sake  of  its 
faith-creating  power  in  society.  The  masterly  exposition  of  this 
thought  has  come  to  us  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Jesus 
begins  his  discourse  with  a  recital  of  a  list  of  those  who  would 
be  the  fortunate  initiators  of  the  new  order.  He  calls  them  the 
salt  of  the  earth — the  people  who  will  keep  society  from  rotting. 
They  are  those  who  have  a  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness 
and  He  finds  such  people  chiefly  among  the  meek  and  the  lowly 
who  have  come  to  hate  injustice  because  they  have  felt  the  iron 
heel  of  oppression. 

Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.' 

The  men  who  are  to  make  possible  the  new  order  must  be  men 
who  will  give  justice  in  thought  as  well  as  deed.  It  was  to  be  a 
discipline  of  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body.  The  new  community 
was  to  be  one  in  which  there  would  be  no  murders ;  if  so,  murder 
must  be  dealt  with  in  the  thought  stage.     Men  could  not  go  on 

*Luke  14:25-33. 
'Matthew  5:3. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  UNIVERSAL  COMMUNITY    71 

feeding  the  flames  of  passion  with  unjust  thoughts  and  stop 
short  of  the  fruit  of  passion  in  murder. 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old  time,  Thou  shalt  not 
kill ;  and  whosoever  shall  kill  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judgment :  but  I 
say  unto  you,  that  every  one  who  is  angry  with  his  brother  shall  be  in 
danger  of  the  judgment.1 

The  new  community  was  to  be  free  from  licentious  action.     If 

so  adultery  must  be  dealt  with  in  the  thought  stage.     Unchaste 

action  is  the  result  of  unchaste  thoughts.     The  men  of  the  new 

order  must  be  clean  in  thought  as  well  as  action. 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery :  but  I 
say  unto  you,  that  every  one  that  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her 
hath  committed  adultery   with  her   already   in   his  heart.2 

The  new  community  must  be  free  from  falsehood.  Public 
opinion  must  be  built  on  the  integrity  of  human  speech.  If  so, 
the  builders  of  the  new  community  must  tell  the  truth  not  be- 
cause they  have  taken  oath  to  do  so  but  because  truth-telling  is 
a  primary  condition  of  social  trust  and  faith.  Truth-telling  was 
independent  of  all  external  occasion. 

Again,  ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old  time,  Thou 
shalt  not  forswear  thyself,  but  shalt  perform  unto  the  Lord  thine  oaths : 
but  I  say  unto  you,  Swear  not  at  all.8 

Justice  could  not  be  maintained  on  the  narrow  basis  of  the  law 
of  revenge.  The  law  of  revenge  is  simply  another  law  of  the 
assertion  of  rights,  both  of  which  land  either  in  slavery  or  in 
social  anarchy.  If  you  will  agree  to  treat  someone  else  as  he 
treats  you,  that  person  can  make  you  his  abject  slave.  If  you  are 
simply  asserting  your  rights,  society  can  stand  it  so  long  as  some- 
one is  responsible  for  holding  society  together.  But  when  all 
begin  to  assert  their  Tights,  society  lands  in  social  anarchy. 

1  Matthew  5 :  21-22.  3  Matthew  5  :  33-34. 

'Matthew  5:27-28. 


72  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

Jesus  substitutes  his  principle  of  the  giving  of  justice  which 
takes  the  initiative  without  waiting  for  goodness  on  the  part  of 
other  people.  He  holds  before  his  disciples  the  thought  of  a 
righteousness  which  is  like  that  of  the  heavenly  Father,  who 

maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the 
just  and  unjust.2 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  :  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth :  but  I  say  unto  you.  Resist  not  him  that  is  evil :  but  whosoever 
smiteth  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also.2 

The  builders  of  the  new  order  will  seek  as  their  main  concern 
in  life  the  righteousness  of  God,  confident  that  the  other 
privileges  and  necessities  of  life  can  be  secured  by  a  social  order 
which  has  paid  the  price  of  a  right  attitude  between  man  and 
man.  A  world  now  facing  starvation  because  of  the  disruption, 
through  war,  of  the  forces  of  production  and  the  channels  of 
trade  may  well  heed  Jesus'  thought  that  the  maintaining  of  right 
relationships  among  men  is  the  key  to  the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  food  and  drink. 

The  founders  of  the  new  order  will  be  conscious  of  a  true 
self-respect.  They  will  not  give  that  which  is  holy  unto  the 
dogs  or  cast  pearls  before  swine,  but  such  a  respect  will  never 
prevent  them  from  laying  more  emphasis  upon  self-criticism 
than  upon  the  criticism  of  others.  They  will  not  be  so  intent 
upon  finding  the  mote  in  their  brother's  eye  that  they  will  be 
unconscious  of  the  beam  in  their  own  eyes. 

To  those  who  are  willing  to  pay  the  price  the  resources  of  the 
heavenly  Father  are  pledged.  At  their  knock  there  shall  be 
opening  and  for  their  seeking  there  shall  be  finding.  The  gate 
is  narrow  and  the  pathway  strait,  but  it  leads  to  uplands  of 
wide  areas.     Other  false  prophets  may  promise  that  grapes  can 

1  Matthew  5:45. 
8  Matthew  5 :  38-36. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  THE  UNIVERSAL  COMMUNITY    73 

be  grown  on  thorns  and  figs  on  thistles,  but  it  cannot  be.  He 
who  would  reap  the  fruits  of  a  permanent  community  must  plant 
the  tree  of  sincere  wholehearted  righteousness.  For  such  a  one 
there  will  be  the  true  reward. 

Every  one  therefore  that  heareth  these  words  of  mine,  and  doeth  them, 
shall  be  likened  unto  a  wise  man,  who  built  his  house  upon  the  rock : 
and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell  not :  for  it  was  founded  upon  the  rock. 
And  every  one  that  heareth  these  words  of  mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall 
be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  who  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  :  and  the 
rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  smote  upon 
that  house ;  and  it  fell :  and  great  was  the  fall  thereof.1 

To  this  vision  of  a  universal  community  founded  upon  the 
justice  of  his  Father  in  Heaven,  Jesus  was  obedient  unto  death. 
He  met  his  death  at  the  hands  of  the  two  world  orders  whose 
failure  He  foretold.  Jewish  and  Roman  justice  broke  down  in 
dealing  with  Jesus,  and  therein  was  revealed  the  need  of  a  higher 
righteousness  than  that  exemplified  in  either  of  these  social 
orders. 


Matthew  7:24-28. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  COMMUNITY  FOUNDED 

BY  JESUS 

Abraham  founded  a  racial  community.  Jesus  founded  an 
ethical  community.  Moses  laid  the  basis  for  community  rela- 
tionships in  law.  Jesus  laid  the  basis  in  love.  The  community 
of  Moses  had  been  a  forerunner  of  the  one  established  by  Jesus. 
In  it  the  Hebrews  had  been  in  tutelage  until  they  were  ready  for 
the  spiritual  and  ethical  community  established  by  Jesus.  Sal- 
vation for  the  Hebrew  had  never  been  an  individualistic  matter. 
Christians  found  salvation  by  becoming  members  of  the  new 
social  order  established  by  the  founder  of  the  new  covenant.  The 
followers  of  Jesus  recognized  in  Him  the  founder  of  the  pro- 
phetic community  which  had  been  foretold  by  the  seers  of  old. 
They  gave  different  reasons  for  believing  thus  about  Him,  but 
they  were  not  disagreed  in  their  judgment. 

The  free  brotherly  universal  community  founded  by  Jesus  and 
having  his  personality  at  its  center  was  a  new  creation  in  the 
world.  The  understanding  of  it  brought  experiences  to  the 
disciples  which  were  new  and  unforeseen.  They  explored  the 
new  life  as  a  bride  would  a  home.  It  was  a  new  status  for  all 
who  were  called  to  partake  of  it.  The  exploration  and  defense 
of  the  new  life  over  against  the  other  orders  of  society  with  which 
the  disciples  were  surrounded  occupied  the  energy  of  the  early 
church.  The  new  life  seemed  inexhaustible.  No  one  human 
life  was  large  enough  to  encompass  it.  It  was  something  they 
were  all  experiencing  together.     Different  men  explored  differ- 

74 


THE  COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  BY  JESUS        75 

ent  phases  of  the  new  life  and  that  which  each  found  out  became 
the  possession  of  the  whole  new  community. 

The  disciples  of  Jesus  only  gradually  became  conscious  of  the 
treasures  which  had  been  committed  unto  them.  The  new  wine 
remained  in  the  old  bottles  for  some  time  after  the  death  of 
Jesus.  The  disciples  were  called  followers  of  the  "Way."  They 
were  considered  an  especially  pious  group  who  had  the  favor  of 
the  leaders  in  the  Hebrew  church.  They  were  characterized  by  a 
great  religious  enthusiasm  which  seemed  to  be  a  part  of  the 
wonderful  release  of  spirit  and  personality  which  had  come  to 
them.  These  manifestations  of  the  spirit  appear  very  promi- 
nently in  the  books  which  describe  the  life  of  the  new  church. 

The  break  with  the  old  community  came  over  the  attitude  of 
the  new  disciples  toward  the  ceremonial  law  and  also  over  their 
attitude  toward  those  who  were  outside  the  racial  boundaries 
of  the  Jews. 

Next  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  most  vigorous  character  in  the 
history  of  the  early  Christian  community  is  Saul  of  Tarsus.  He 
had  been  raised  and  trained  under  the  old  Jewish 
p    -    .  theocracy.     He  had   accepted  the  ideas  of  the 

Dynamic  Figure  Jewish  commonwealth  as  interpreted  by  the 
in  the  New  outstanding   leaders   of   his   time.     With   a   re- 

mmumty  ligious  devotion  he  had  defended  and  sought  to 
enforce  the  claims  of  the  ceremonial  law  upon 
the  Jews  of  his  time  and  especially  upon  all  heretics  who  in 
any  way  minimized  its  validity.  He  first  appears  in  the  records 
as  the  organizer  of  a  crusade  against  the  sect  who  here  and  there 
were  undermining  and  doing  things  contrary  to  the  traditions 
of  the  elders.  In  this  capacity  we  find  the  men  who  stoned 
Stephen,  the  first  Christian  martyr,  laying  their  garments  down 
at  the  feet  of  one  named  Saul. 

SauPs  conversion  to  an  entirely  new  conception  of  the  Jewish 


76  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

theocracy  comes  on  his  way  to  Damascus  whither  he  is  going  on 
a  crusade  to  exterminate  the  followers  of  Jesus.  By  a  remark- 
able spiritual  experience  he  becomes  convinced  that  this  Jesus 
whom  he  is  persecuting  is  really  the  chosen  one  of  God  for  estab- 
lishing of  the  new  covenant  and  commonwealth  towards  which 
the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  had  looked  forward.  The 
Jesus  whom  he  is  persecuting  is  not  a  dead  Jew  but  is  the  living 
founder  of  the  new  order,  who  summons  Saul  to  the  work  of 
preaching  the  good  news  to  his  fellow  country  men  and  especially 
to  the  Gentiles. 

All  the  intensity  of  faith  with  which  Paul  had  once  defended 
the  old  Hebrew  theocracy  was  transferred  to  the  service  of  ex- 
plaining the  universal  claims  of  the  community 
Paul's  Descrip-    established   by   Jesus.      It  was   to   be   a   world 
Cominunitv  order  with  authority  over  all  principalities  and 

all  powers.  The  absolute  right  of  Jesus  to  reign 
was  the  first  item  of  faith  of  all  the  apostles.  It  generally  con- 
stituted the  opening  sentence  in  all  of  Paul's  letters.  The 
Epistle  to  the  Eomans  is  typical : 

Paul,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  called  to  be  an  apostle,  separated 
unto  the  gospel  of  God,  which  he  promised  afore  through  his  prophets 
in  the  holy  scriptures,  concerning  his  Son,  who  was  born  of  the  seed  of 
David  according  to  the  flesh,  who  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with 
power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead ;  even  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  through  whom  we  receive  grace  and 
apostleship,  unto  obedience  of  faith  among  all  the  nations,  for  his  name's 
sake ;  among  whom  are  ye  also,  called  to  be  Jesus  Christ's.1 

A  great  difference  in  opinion  existed  in  the  early  church  as 
to  the  way  in  which  the  authority  of  Christ  and  his  community 
was  to  be  set  up,  but  all  agreed  in  the  absolute  right  of  this 
community  over  all  earthly  principalities  and  powers. 

x  Romans  1  :l-6. 


THE  COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  BY  JESUS        77 

The  great  distinction  between  the  Mosaic  community  and  the 
Christian  community  lay  in  the  fact  that  in  the  Christian  com- 
munity man  instead  of  being  under  the  tutelage 
The  New  Status  of  Jewish  law  had  come  in  to  his  moral  majority. 
He  was  now  a  son  and  heir.  The  spirit  bore 
witness  with  his  spirit  that  he  was  a  son  of  God.  He  became  a 
member  of  the  new  community  by  an  ethical  and  spiritual  act  on 
his  part  whereby  the  spirit  of  Jesus  became  also  his  spirit.  In 
joining  the  new  community  his  own  personal  life  was  enlarged 
by  becoming  part  of  the  personal  life  of  Jesus. 

I  have  been  crucified  with  Christ ;  and  it  is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me :  and  that  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  in 
faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  him- 
self up  for  me.1 

But  I  say  that  so  long  as  the  heir  is  a  child,  he  differeth  nothing  from 
a  bondservant  though  he  is  lord  of  all ;  but  is  under  guardians  and 
stewards  until  the  day  appointed  of  the  father.  So  we  also,  when  we 
were  children,  were  held  in  bondage  under  the  rudiments  of  the  world  : 
but  when  the  fulness  of  the  time  came,  God  sent  forth  his  Son,  born  of  a 
woman,  born  under  the  law,  that  he  might  redeem  them  that  were  under 
the  law,  that  we  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons.  And  because  ye  are 
sons,  God  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  his  Son  into  our  hearts,  crying,  Abba, 
Father.  So  that  thou  art  no  longer  a  bondservant,  but  a  son ;  and  if  a 
son,  then  an  heir  through  God.2 

The  clear  recognition  that  here  was  a  life  which  called  a  man 
to  freedom  and  introduced  him  to  his  moral  majority  was  to 
Paul  one  of  the  captivating  thoughts  about  the  new  life.  It 
released  him  from  the  bondage  and  the  childishness  of  the  old 
order  where  he  had  never  enjoyed  the  right  of  freedom  of  thought 
and  the  exercise  of  his  full  powers. 

Paul  very  seldom  uses  the  term,  "Kingdom  of  God"  to  de- 


^alatians  2:20. 
2  Galatians  4  :l-7. 


78  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

scribe  the  new  social  order  which  Jesus  established.    He  adopts 

a  new  term  which  is  very  expressive  of   the 

of  Christ  brotherly  life  of  the  new  order.     He  uses  the 

term,  "Body  of  Christ,"  to  signify  the  uniting  of 

all  the  members  of  the  new  order  in  a  great  organic  relationship 

in  which  each  has  individuality  even  as  the  hand  and  eye  have 

separate  functions  and  yet  are  at  the  same  time  united  in  the 

one  common  body  which  is  greater  than  all. 

For  even  as  we  have  many  members  in  one  body,  and  all  the  members 
have  not  the  same  office :  so  we,  who  are  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ, 
and  severally  members  one  of  another.1 

In  this  body  which  is  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  which  he  also  identifies  with  the  spirit  of  God,  dwells 
as  an  abiding  authority.  Paul  does  not  draw  a  distinction  be- 
tween the  revelation  of  the  spirit  and  the  discovery  of  truth  on 
the  part  of  the  members  of  Christ's  body.  It  seems  to  be  a 
mutual  relationship  that  the  best  thinking  of  these  members  is 
not  different  from  the  revelation  of  the  mind  of  Christ  inside  the 
Christian  community.  The  corporate  conscience  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  which  every  Christian  was  helping  to  build  was  also 
the  conscience  of  Jesus  Christ  revealing  itself  in  the  world. 

Since  love  brought  the  new  community  into  being,  love  was 
the  organic  law  of  right  in  the  new  community.  Whatsoever 
was  not  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  love  was  wrong.  Whatso- 
ever was  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  love  was 
The  Law  of         right  in  spite  of  all  the  traditions  of  the  elders. 

*g   J^1  Paul  spends  whole  sections  of  the  letters  which 

New  Commu-  r 

nity  he  writes  to  his  churches,  expounding  the  mean- 

ing of  this  word,  "love."  His  classic  exposition 
was  sent  to  the  Corinthian  Church. 

Paul's  letters  to  his  disciples  have  two  main  themes:  He 

1  Romans  12 :  4-5. 


THE  COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  BY  JESUS        79 

spends  a  great  deal  of  time  defending  the  new  covenant  and 
basis  of  the  new  community  over  against  the  Hebrew  theocracy 
based  on  the  Mosaic  Law,  and  after  he  has  done  this  he  generally 
spends  the  rest  of  his  letter  expounding  the  meaning  of  the  word, 
"love."  He  takes  up  the  whole  realm  of  the  common  life  of  the 
people  to  whom  he  writes  and  discusses  their  line  of  conduct 
under  the  general  admonition,  "Walk  in  love  even  as  Christ  also 
loved  you."  Under  such  a  general  principle  he  discusses  in  his 
letter  to  the  Ephesians  such  topics  as  personal  purity,  the  use 
of  one's  time,  the  relation  of  husbands  and  wives,  the  relation  of 
children  to  parents,  of  servants  to  masters,  and  the  relation  of  a 
Christian  to  the  world  powers  of  his  time.  In  his  letter  to  the 
Galatians,  after  expounding  to  them  their  freedom  as  sons  of 
the  new  covenant,  he  says : 

Only  use  not  your  freedom  for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,  but  through 
love  be  servants  one  to  another.  For  the  whole  law  is  fulfilled  in  one 
word,  even  in  this :  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.1 

The  early  Christians  could  not  entirely  give  themselves  to  the 
enjoyment  and  exploration  of  the  new  relationship  into  which 
they  had  been  inducted  by  Jesus  and  so  ably  led  by  Paul.  The 
order  which  they  were  establishing  brought  an 
The  Fight  of  the  incisive  challenge  both  to  the  Jewish  and  the 
New  Commu-  Roman  world  orders,  a  challenge  which  they  were 
World  Orders  no*  s^ow  *°  acceP**  Here  was  a  theocracy  which 
of  the  Time  claimed  the  ultimate  right  and  power  to  influ- 
ence every  other  world  order.  Its  militancy 
was  astounding.  It  had  a  hatred  and  scorn  of  the  prevailing 
Jewish  and  Roman  world  orders  which  soon  brought  upon  it  the 
bitter  persecution  of  the  leaders  in  both  the  Jewish  and  the 
Eoman  world. 


1  Galatians  5 :13-14. 


80  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

The  Jew  contended  for  a  theocracy  based  on  the  saeredness  of 

the  Jewish  law  as  interpreted  by  the  scribes  of  the  day.     This 

law  had  been  amplified  until  the  observance  of  it 

The  Fight  with    was  a  kur(jeI1  on  the  souls  of  men.     It  landed  a 

the  Jewish 

World  Order        man  m  an  aDJec*  slavery  and  left  him  with  a  bad 

conscience  because  of  his  utter  inability  to  keep 
the  law.  Both  Paul  and  Jesus  took  radical  ground  with  refer- 
ence to  the  trivial  character  of  the  scribal  casuistry.  Again  and 
again  in  the  interest  of  some  great  principle  Jesus  broke  the 
petty  regulations  of  the  scribes  and  the  priests.  Paul,  on  the 
basis  of  his  belief  that  a  new  covenant  had  been  established  by 
Jesus  and  a  new  religious  community  had  been  launched,  rad- 
ically declared  that  the  law  was  no  longer  binding  on  those  who 
had  entered  the  spiritual  community  governed  by  love  which 
Jesus  had  founded. 

Of  course  this  attitude  brought  down  the  wrath  and  condemna- 
tion of  the  orthodox  Jews.  More  than  anything  else  it  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  break  of  the  Christian  Church  with  the  old 
Jewish  theocracy.  The  Christians  were  thrust  out  of  the  Church. 
It  has  also  been  responsible  for  a  sentimental  attitude  which  has 
prevailed  in  the  Church  ever  since  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
which  has  made  Christians  content  with  a  negative  attitude 
toward  laws  of  the  state  and  the  community.  Christians  have 
been  content  with  the  pious  sentimentality  which  they  have 
offered  as  a  substitute  for  the  carrying  out  of  moral  convictions 
in  the  organic  law  of  the  time.  Paul  carried  his  moral  prin- 
ciples out  into  every  department  of  life  and  were  he  here  at  the 
present  time,  there  is  no  question  about  his  condemnation  of 
those  who  allow  moral  sentiment  to  stop  short  of  its  logical  out- 
working in  the  laws  of  human  society. 

To  the  members  of  the  Christian  community  which  took  as  its 
symbol  of  a  true  social  order  the  human  body  in  which  every 


THE  COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  BY  JESUS        81 

part  had  an  organic  place  and  even  the  most  insignificant  part 

a  place  of  honor,  there  was  a  challenge  in  the 

The  Fight  with     Roman  world  order  built  up  on  its  theories  of 

the  Roman  -  ,  .  , 

World  Order         orce    a        compulsion    and    its    sixty    million 

slaves.  To  the  members  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity who  were  followers  of  one  who  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto  but  to  minister,  there  was  a  challenge  in  the  Koman  world 
order  with  such  a  man  as  Nero  at  its  head  who  created  the  cult  of 
emperor  worship  for  his  own  glorification  and  came  most  dis- 
tinctly to  be  ministered  unto  and  not  to  serve.  To  the  members 
of  the  Christian  community  who  followed  one  who  said,  "Suffer 
the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not :  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  God,"1  there  was  a  challenge  in  a  Eoman 
imperial  government  reaching  out  into  the  provinces  of  western 
Asia  and  dragging  thousands  of  boys  and  girls  to  the  great  im- 
perial city  to  help  satisfy  the  lust  of  the  ruling  powers  of  the 
time.  The  Christian  writers  had  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that 
the  Eoman  world  order  was  corrupt  beyond  repair  and  they  with 
good  conscience  commanded  their  followers  to  have  no  dealings 
with  the  powers  of  darkness. 

The  early  Christian  literature  of  the  New  Testament  reflects 
a  very  pessimistic  attitude  toward  the  world  orders  of  the  time 

in  which  the  Christians  lived.     Many  have  tried 

The  Negative      ^Q  universaiize  this  attitude  and  make  it  normal 

Attitude  of  the 

Christian  Com-    ^or  ^ne  attitude  of  Christians  toward  all  social 

munity  toward     orders.     This  is  decidedly  a  wrong  conclusion. 

theTwoDomi-    It  ought  not  to  be  the  attitude  of  Christians 

Orders  when  the  Christian  community  has  passed  be- 

yond the  place  where  it  was  in  New  Testament 
times.  The  early  Christian  community  faced  the  problem  of 
escape  from  two  dominant  world  orders  which  were  trying  to 


1  Luke  18 :16. 


(Hi  7 


82  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

crush  out  its  life.  It  was  not  yet  strong  enough  to  seek  any 
kind  of  control  or  direction  in  those  world  orders.  The  Chris- 
tians had  no  conception  of  such  a  task.  They  knew  that  these 
two  world  orders  were  unfriendly  and  sought  their  ruin,  and 
they  dynamited  the  whole  prevailing  world  order  with  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ,  who  they  were  perfectly 
sure  was  Lord  of  all  history  and  under  whose  power  the  Chris- 
tian community  would  come  into  its  rightful  place  in  the  world 
which  was  under  the  direction  of  the  great  God  of  human 
history. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  UNIVERSAL  COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON 
JUSTICE  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  TO-DAY 

The  experiences  of  the  world  war  and  the  struggle  of  the  world 
for  a  just  peace  have  brought  us  face  to  face  once  more  with  the 

necessity  of  a  world  order  which  is  more  than 
of  the  Idea  national.     It  was  the  frank  assertion  on  the  part 

of  one  nation  that  the  state  which  had  power  con- 
stituted the  limit  of  right,  and  a  national  training  built  up  on 
this  idea,  which  threw  the  world  into  the  chaos  of  the  last  four 
years.  The  attempt  of  the  Allies  to  deal  with  the  issues  of  a 
just  peace  has  revealed  a  standard  of  ethics  among  all  the  nations 
which  falls  far  short  of  the  needs  of  the  situation.  When  the 
stress  of  an  impending  defeat  drew  the  nations  together,  there 
was  a  tendency  to  rise  to  something  of  a  point  of  view  of  interna- 
tional right,  but  since  victory  has  come  to  one  side  the  sag  back 
into  the  old  ethics  of  nationalism  has  been  both  pathetic  and 
tragic.  One  cannot  help  feeling,  as  many  have  pointed  out, 
that  the  fault  lies  to  quite  an  extent  at  the  door  of  that  institu- 
tion whose  business  it  was  to  have  laid  the  basis  of  a  conviction 
about  a  justice  which  was  not  confined  to  race  or  nation,  but  was 
valid  for  all  races  and  all  nations  and  afforded  the  basis  for  an 
international  order  which  could  temper  and  set  in  right  rela- 
tions the  striving  national  and  racial  groups. 

As  one  looks  back  over  the  history  of  Christianity  he  is  im- 
pressed with  the  fact  that  this  task  of  being  a  community  more 

inclusive  than  any  of  the  natural  groupings  of 
Church  men,  such  as  race  or  nation,  was  a  task  which  the 

early  Catholic  Church  attempted.  Most  of  the 
great  controversies  in  the  early  history  of  the  Church  had  to  do 

83 


84  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

with  the  right  of  the  Church  to  rise  above  racial  and  national 
boundaries.  The  Church  did  in  a  very  real  sense  become  a 
universal  community  which  for  centuries  tempered  the  enthusi- 
asm of  national,  racial  and  social  classes  and  united  them  as 
members  in  the  Body  of  Christ.  This  was  the  ideal  of  the  uni- 
versal Church.  For  centuries  it  was  a  great  unifying  power  and 
was  the  only  unifying  power  in  what  was  then  the  known  world. 
In  so  far  as  the  Church  kept  itself  an  ethical  community 
founded  on  right,  it  was  fulfilling  its  mission  in  claiming  an 
authority  over  the  nations  which  was  higher  than  the  political 
authority  exercised  by  earthly  rulers. 

The  Catholic  Church,  however,  made  the  mistake  of  becoming 
a  manipulating  power  rather  than  a  power  for  inspiration.  It 
was  a  great  super-community  which  exercised  an  authority  over 
individuals  and  over  communities,  not  unlike  that  exercised  by 
imperial  Eome  against  which  Jesus  had  protested.  The  doctrine 
of  the  infallible  Church  and  the  infallible  Pope  was  forged  as  a 
part  of  the  policy  of  manipulation.  The  Church  was  trying  to 
live  by  a  new  kind  of  force  and  compulsion.  Its  mistake  lay  not 
in  the  fact  that  it  claimed  to  be  a  community  more  authoritative 
than  national  and  racial  communities,  but  in  the  way  it  sought 
to  set  up  and  exercise  that  authority.  The  vigorous  national 
groups  of  central  Europe  resented  the  oppressive  policies  of  the 
Catholic  Church  and  the  Reformation  was  the  result. 

The  Protestant  Church  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  rising  tide 
of  self-assertion  on  the  part  of  the  political,  industrial  and 
religious  groups  of  central  Europe  which  finally 
Protestantism  revolted  against  the  authority  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  It  has  often  been  described  as  the  as- 
sertion of  the  right  of  individual  liberty  in  religion.  As  a  prin- 
ciple of  protest  against  a  manipulating  autocratic  power,  this 
right  of  individual  liberty  in  religion  is  legitimate.    It  is  only 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY    85 

right  that  we  should  first  of  all  recognize  the  wonderful  blessing 
which  has  come  to  the  world  through  this  exercise  of  individual 
and  group  right  which  was  set  up  under  Protestantism.  Under 
this  system  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  religion  thrives  when 
it  is  made  a  voluntary  matter  instead  of  a  matter  of  compulsion 
backed  up  by  police  force.  The  last  three  hundred  years  of 
Protestantism  have  been  some  of  the  most  fruitful  in  the  history 
of  Christianity.  The  record  of  missionary  activity,  of  educa- 
tional growth,  and  of  philanthropic  service  shown  by  the  Prot- 
estant denominations  is  phenomenal.  Again  under  this  system 
religion  has  been  free  from  graft.  There  is  no  well  established 
center  in  modern  Protestantism  which  gives  opportunity  for  the 
exercise  of  that  modern  mania  for  controlling  centers  of  influ- 
ence. Again,  modern  religious  life  has  been  fairly  progressive. 
Individual  churches  may  be  slow  to  suggestion  and  conservative, 
but  society  gives  to  the  new  the  right  to  organize  freely  and 
openly.  And  again,  religion  has  been  fairly  democratic.  The 
church  which  must  live  by  the  good  will  of  the  people  must  live 
close  to  the  people. 

But  this  estimate  of  modern  Protestantism  cannot  be  com- 
pleted without  a  fair  recognition  of  its  total  failure  to  set  up  the 
ideal  of  a  universal  community  founded  on  justice.  Modern 
Protestantism  has  set  up  almost  an  infinite  number  of  com- 
munities founded  not  on  justice,  but  on  differences  in  theological 
dogma.  It  has  been  an  agency  for  division  in  many  com- 
munities. In  one  small  county  in  a  western  state  modern 
Protestantism  erected  the  following  monuments  to  its  power  to 
divide : 

1  African  Baptist  6  Church     of     God      (Winebren- 

2  African  Methodist  Episcopal  arian) 

3  Amish  Mennonite  7  Cumberland  Presbyterian 

4  Baptist  8  Disciples  of  Christ 

5  Catholic  9  Disciples   (Non-Progressive) 


86 


THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 


10  Episcopal 

11  General  Baptist 

12  Holiness 

13  Methodist  Episcopal 

14  Presbyterian 

15  Salvation  Army 

16  Seventh  Day  Adventist 

17  United  Brethren 

18  Baptist,  Primitive 

19  Brethren 

20  Christian 

21  Church  of  Christ  (Scientist) 

22  Church  of  God   (Adventist) 

23  Church  of  God  (Saints) 

24  Covenanters 

25  Congregational 

26  Evangelic  Association 


27  German  Evangelic 

28  Lutheran  (Synod of  Chicago) 

29  Lutheran  (Synod  of  Missouri) 

30  Lutheran,  Swedish 

31  Methodist  Protestant 

32  Pentecostal  Holiness 

33  Progressive  Brethren 

34  Reformed 

35  United  Brethren    (Old   Consti- 

tution ) 

36  Wesleyan  Methodist 

37  Baptist  (Means) 

38  Baptist  (Predestinarian) 

39  Friends 

40  Millennial  Dawn 

41  United  Presbyterian 


The  second  indictment  against  Protestantism  is  that  it  has 
been  responsible  for  that  moral  and  spiritual  monstrosity — the 
national  and  class  Church.  The  former  of  these  was  created  by 
intention  in  the  days  when  Protestantism  doubted  its  ability  to 
stand  alone  without  state  aid.  The  latter  has  been  built  by  a 
process  of  drift  through  which  the  Church  naturally  slips  into  the 
control  of  those  who  are  able  and  willing  to  give  it  support. 
When  religion  becomes  a  servant  of  national  and  class  groups 
stimulating  nationalism  and  caste,  it  compounds  a  felony.  It 
lands  the  world  in  a  condition  as  deplorable  as  that  produced  by 
an  autocratic  manipulating  church.  In  some  ways  it  would  be 
fair  to  say  that  we  are  now  living  in  the  dark  ages  of  Prot- 
estantism. 

The  third  indictment  against  Protestantism,  and  Catholicism 
must  share  this  indictment,  is  that  it  failed  to  develop  that 
international  conscience  for  right  which  might  have  made  the 
recent  war  impossible  or  at  least  have  created  the  conscience  for 
a  just  peace  after  the  war.    It  seems  to  have  done  neither.    In 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY    87 

general  the  churches  have  supported  the  League  of  Nations,  but 
it  has  not  been  the  militant  support  of  a  religious  group  worthy 
the  traditions  of  the  early  Church. 

Modern  conditions  and  the  fullest  development  of  our  Chris- 
tian faith  call  for  a  revival  of  the  conviction  of  the  early  Church 
that  Jesus  has  laid  the  foundation  for  a  social 
of  the  Present  or(^er  which  rises  above  the  bounds  of  race  and 
nation  in  which  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek, 
slave  nor  master.  This  social  order  organized  around  a  spiritual 
and  ethical  personality  must  be  held  together,  not  by  the  power 
of  law  enforced  by  an  appeal  to  fear,  but  through  the  binding 
power  of  spiritual  fellowship,  love,  and  social  faith.  It  must  be 
a  community  of  the  spirit  which  will  lead  its  members  into 
spiritual  maturity.  Its  program  for  world  dominion  calls  for 
the  multiplication  of  human  personalities  in  every  situation  in 
life  who  possess  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  and  whose  corporate 
conscience  will  be  the  continuing  authority  of  God  in  human 
history.  Membership  in  such  a  community  will  be  more  im- 
portant from  a  moral  standpoint  than  membership  in  family, 
race  or  nation. 

If  we  are  to  meet  the  challenge  of  the  present  we  must 
revive  what  Professor  Eoyce  called  the  most  neglected  doc- 
trine in  modern  Christianity — the  doctrine  of 
The  Place  and  the  Church  Universal.  For  a  universal  com- 
punction of  munity  the  universal  Christian  Church  will  be 
the  Universal 
Christian  ^ne  necessary  personal  expression.     The  Church 

Church  does   not  exhaust   or   monopolize   the   full   ex- 

pression of  the  universal  community.  The 
Church  is  the  expression  of  this  community  in  terms  of  personal 
relationships.  Outside  of  the  Church  there  will  be  all  those 
phases  of  community  life  which  exist  outside  but  are  related  to 
the  Church  in  every  community.     If  we  are  to  take  seriously  the 


88  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

setting  up  of  the  universal  community  based  on  right  we  are 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  building  and  extension  of  the 
Church  Universal  is  a  first  charge  upon  all  Christians.  This 
building  of  the  Church  is  not  a  mechanical  task ;  it  is  not  a  work 
with  wood  and  stone ;  it  is  the  multiplication  of  people  in  every 
walk  of  life  who  owe  a  conscious  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ  and 
who  in  their  corporate  conscience  express  his  will  and  spirit  for 
human  society. 

Our  first  task  will  be  the  understanding  of  the  personality 
of  Jesus  and  the  traditions  and  history  of  the  Church  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  possible  a  unified  Christian  Church  such  as  the 
founder  of  it  evidently  had  in  mmd.  The  unification  of  the 
Church  cannot  be  accomplished  by  any  mechanical  manipula- 
tion of  organization.  It  can  only  come  by  overcoming  the  sin 
of  a  misplaced  emphasis  on  non-essentials  and  by  a  new  emphasis 
on  great  common  essentials.  Protestant  Churches  especially 
have  too  long  been  content  to  define  themselves  by  exclusive 
definitions.  Ecclesiastical  statesmanship  must  set  for  itself  the 
building  of  that  body  of  sentiment  which  will  make  possible  a 
reunited  Christendom.  Let  us  frankly  admit  the  short-comings 
of  both  Catholic  and  Protestant.  If  the  reuniting  of  Christen- 
dom is  not  possible  in  this  new  age,  nothing  of  progress  is 
possible.  A  Christendom  divided  on  minor  issues  can  never 
serve  the  cause  of  the  universal  community.  It  will  be  weak  in 
times  of  national  crisis;  it  will  fall  a  prey  to  the  very  forces 
which  it  ought  to  control.  As  Protestants  we  must  be  loyal  to 
the  Protestant  principles  in  so  far  as  they  are  valid,  but  we 
ought  also  be  so  loyal  to  the  Founder  of  our  order  that  we  share 
his  anguish  over  the  fragmentary  condition  of  his  Church. 
In  a  time  of  world  chaos,  we  should  have  a  new  longing  and 
vision  for  the  Church  Universal. 

To  many  miuds  the  idea  of  a  great  unified  Church  suggests  a 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY    89 

closely  knit  institution  whose  progress  is  impeded  by  the  dead 

weight  of  its  own  machinery.     Recalling  the  lack  of  progress 

and   institutionalism   of   the   ancient   Catholic    Church,   many 

people  conceive  that  a  united  Church  is  neither  possible  nor 

desirable.     But  the  world  has  learned  much  about  ways  and 

methods  of  organization  since  the  Catholic  Church  was  founded 

on  the  plan  of  the  old  Roman  Empire.     We  have  learned  since 

then  how  to  unite  without  destroying  individual  liberty.     The 

British  Empire  and  the  United  States  of  America  have  more 

cohesiveness  and  more  liberty  than  the  Roman  Empire  ever  had. 

It  is  possible  to  build  a  united  Church  and  at  the  same  time 

preserve  liberty  of  thought  and  liberty  of  action.     Surely  there 

can  be  found  an  ecclesiastical  statesmanship  which  is  equal  to 

the  new  challenge. 

If  an  authority  is  to  be  set  up  in  "No-Man's  Land"  it 

will   be   the    corporate    conscience    of    the    Christian    Church. 

This  conscience  is  the  only  adequate  authority 

Building  the         for  a  WOrld  in  chaos.     The  building  of  this  con- 
Corporate  Con-         •  •  i.   n  i  ™     •   •  •  i 
f            science   is   a   challenge   to   every   Christian   and 

the  Church  every  Christian  church.     It  calls  for  the  coop- 

eration of  all  in  the  building  of  something  which 
shall  be  authority  for  all  of  us.  The  full  revelation  of  the 
mind  of  Jesus  Christ  calls  upon  each  individual  to  cooperate 
with  others  in  the  finding  and  doing  of  the  will  of  the  loving 
God.  The  will  of  God  for  human  society  has  not  been  com- 
mitted to  any  one  individual  for  interpretation.  The  corporate 
conscience  is  truer  in  its  outlook  than  the  individual  conscience. 
No  one  individual  or  group  is  good  enough  to  determine  the 
complete  rule  of  God  for  any  social  situation.  On  all  of  us 
there  is  the  obligation  to  seek  with  others  the  way  of  justice  and 
righteousness. 

The  corporate  conscience  of  the  Christian  Church  must  be  true 


90  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

to  the  emphasis  of  the  New  Testament  which  makes  the  principle 

of  love  the  organizing  principle  for  all  ethical 

The  Corporate     action.     Brotherliness  which  makes  the  test  of 

Conscience* 

M      _  justice  to  others  the  privileges  we  demand  for 

Historical  ourselves  must  characterize  the  justice  for  which 

the  Church  stands.  Whatsoever  of  the  major 
satisfaction  of  life,  the  strong  demand  for  themselves,  these  they 
must  demand  for  those  who  share  the  social  order  with  them. 

In  the  building  of  the  Christian  conscience  the  spirit  and 
principle  of  righteousness  must  be  more  important  than  the 
letter.  If  the  Church  is  not  to  reduce  people  to  moral  childish- 
ness, it  must  have  that  regard  for  the  moral  integrity  of  the 
individual  which  will  cause  it  not  to  seek  the  authority  which 
destroys,  but  to  offer  that  authority  of  the  spirit  which  also 
encourages  freedom.  The  Church  must  never  again  become  the 
teacher  of  a  casuistry  which  destroys  moral  independence. 

In  the  building  of  the  conscience  of  the  Church  we  must  guard 
against  the  sins  of  the  past.  We  must  guard  the  Church  against 
the  sin  of  self-consciousness.  When  the  Church  conscience  is 
devoted  entirely  to  those  matters  which  have  to  do  with  the 
self-preservation  of  the  Church,  the  Church  cannot  escape  the 
charge  of  being  selfish.  Church  chores  are  not  the  chief  matter 
about  which  a  church  should  be  conscientious.  Dress  parade 
ought  not  to  monopolize  the  enthusiasm  of  a  regiment  organ- 
ized for  service.  The  Church  which  is  conscientious  about 
petty  things  will  make  a  petty  people,  and  a  petty  people  will 
perish  from  the  earth. 

The  corporate  conscience  of  the  Christian  Church  must 
bring  to  its  aid  natural  science  in  order  that  it  may  under- 
lie Corporate  stand  and  control  the  social  order  which  the 
Conscience  Christian  looks  upon  as  the  material  to  be  used 

Scientific  *n  the  building  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.    Natural 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY    91 

science  is  to  the  Christian  what  the  science  of  house-building  is  to 
the  one  seeking  to  build  a  home.  The  spirit  and  purpose  of  the 
person  desiring  to  build  a  home  is  one  thing  and  is  most  impor- 
tant. When  it  comes  to  actual  building,  progress  is  not  possible 
unless  there  is  a  knowledge  of  mechanical  conditions  under  which 
it  is  possible  to  build  a  house.  Sometimes  it  is  an  old  house  which 
needs  to  be  wrecked  before  a  new  house  can  be  constructed. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  matter  of  thoroughly  understanding  a  house 
which  has  already  been  built.  Sometimes  it  is  a  matter  of  taking 
raw  material  and  constructing  an  entirely  new  house.  Whatever 
the  task  in  actual  house-building,  there  is  necessity  for  the  under- 
standing of  the  mechanics  of  the  task.  The  question  as  to 
whether  the  house  is  to  be  a  home  filled  with  the  spirit  and  pur- 
pose of  home  life  is  another  question  from  the  scientific  task  of 
house  building,  but  all  have  their  place.  The  rapid  advances  of 
natural  science  during  the  last  century  ought  to  make  it  possible 
for  those  who  are  establishing  the  authority  of  God  in  the  world 
to  exercise  a  freer  and  finer  type  of  workmanship  than  ever  be- 
fore in  human  history.  Before  the  Christian  equipped  with  the 
knowledge  of  social  science  all  social  orders  become  plastic, 
they  are  the  raw  material  out  of  which  a  Christian  social  order 
is  to  be  built.  There  is  no  conflict  between  religion  and 
science  to  those  who  would  establish  the  rule  of  God  in  human 
society. 

The  Christianizing  of  vocational  and  group  ethics  in  the  name 

of  the  universal  community  is  the  most  direct  approach  to 

social  order.     When  the  ethics  of  the  kingdom  of 

The  Corporate      righteousness   become   the   ethics   of   our    great 

Co  II  SCI  GUC  s 

Must  Be  Social    soc^a^  vocations  and  our  dominant  social  groups, 
the    Kingdom   of    God   will   be    very    close   at 
hand. 

The  approach  of  an  individual  Christian  to  the  social  order 


92  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

is  largely  through  his  vocation.     In  the  shape  of  community 
tasks  there  is  offered  to  every  man  the  chance  to 
Etj.  take   part   in   the   social   order.     He   finds   the 

chance  to  be  a  parent,  a  minister,  a  lawyer,  a 
surgeon,  a  merchant,  a  manufacturer,  a  newspaper  publisher, 
and  it  is  of  supreme  importance  that  he  see  in  these  vocations  the 
chance  to  do  the  will  of  God.  When  the  organizing  principle 
of  his  vocation  is  the  Christian  principle  of  love  and  good  will, 
his  vocation  has  become  a  part  of  the  universal  kingdom  of 
righteousness.  A  good  illustration  of  the  Christianizing  of 
vocational  ethics  is  found  in  the  standards  set  forth  by  the  Inter- 
national Association  of  Eotary  Clubs: 

My  business  standards  shall  have  in  them  a  note  of  sympathy  for  our 
common  humanity.  My  business  dealings,  ambitions,  relations  shall 
always  cause  me  to  take  into  consideration  my  highest  duties  as  a  member 
of  society.  In  every  position  in  business  life,  in  every  responsibility 
which  comes  before  me,  my  chief  thought  shall  be  to  fill  that  responsibility 
and  discharge  that  duty  so  that  when  I  have  ended  each  of  them  I  shall 
have  lifted  the  level  of  human  ideals  and  achievements  a  little  higher  than 
I  found  them.  In  view  of  this  your  committee  holds  that  fundamental 
in  a  code  of  trade  ethics  for  International  Rotary  are  the  following 
principles : 

First :  To  consider  my  vocation  worthy,  and  as  affording  me  distinct 
opportunity  to  serve  society. 

Second :  To  improve  myself,  increase  my  efficiency  and  enlarge  my 
service,  and  by  so  doing  attest  my  faith  in  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Rotary  that  he  profits  most  who  serves  best. 

Third :  To  realize  that  I  am  a  business  man  and  ambitious  to  succeed ; 
but  that  I  am  first  an  ethical  man,  and  wish  no  success  that  is  not 
founded  on  the  highest  justice  and  morality. 

Fourth  :  To  hold  that  the  exchange  of  my  goods,  my  service  and  my 
ideals  for  profit  is  legitimate  and  ethical,  provided  that  all  parties  in  the 
exchange   are  benefited   thereby. 

Fifth :  To  use  my  best  endeavors  to  elevate  the  standards  of  the  voca- 
tion in  which  I  am  engaged,  and  so  conduct  my  affairs  that  others  in  my 
vocation  may  find  it  wise,  profitable  and  conducive  to  happiness  to  emulate 
my  example. 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY    93 

Sixth :  To  conduct  my  business  in  such  a  manner  that  I  may  give  a 
perfect  service  equal  to  or  even  better  than  my  competitor,  and  when  in 
doubt  to  give  added  service  beyond  the  strict  measure  of  debt  or  obligation. 

Seventh :  To  understand  that  one  of  the  greatest  assets  of  a  professional 
or  of  a  business  man  is  his  friends,  and  that  any  advantage  gained  by 
reason  of  friendship  is  eminently  ethical  and  proper. 

Eighth :  To  hold  that  true  friends  demand  nothing  of  one  another,  and 
that  any  abuse  of  the  confidence  of  friendship  for  profit  is  foreign  to 
the  spirit  of  Rotary,  and  in  violation  of  its  Code  of  Ethics. 

Ninth :  To  consider  no  personal  success  legitimate  or  ethical  which  is 
secured  by  taking  unfair  advantage  of  certain  opportunities  in  the  social 
order  that  are  absolutely  denied  others,  nor  will  I  take  advantage  of 
opportunities  to  achieve  material  success  that  others  will  not  take  because 
of  the  questionable  morality  involved. 

Tenth :  To  be  no  more  obligated  to  a  Brother  Rotarian  than  I  am  to 
every  other  man  in  human  society ;  because  the  genius  of  Rotary  is  not  in 
its  competition  but  in  its  cooperation ;  for  provincialism  can  never  have 
a  place  in  an  institution  like  Rotary,  and  Rotarians  assert  that  human 
rights  are  not  confined  to  Rotary  Clubs  but  are  as  deep  and  as  broad  as 
the  race  itself;  and  for  these  high  purposes  does  Rotary  exist  to  educate 
all  men  in  all  institutions. 

Eleventh :  Finally  believing  in  the  universality  of  the  Golden  Rule — 
All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even 
so  unto  them — we  contend  that  society  best  holds  together  when  equal 
opportunity  is  accorded  all  men  in  the  natural  resources  of  this  planet. 

It  is  not  the  Greek  motive  of  ethics,  which  is  based  upon 
perfecting  the  person  and  perpetuating  the  state  simply  to  pre- 
serve the  ego,  but  this  code  is  predicated  on 
The  Motive  of      _  „,,    A  .  *  _   ,      .         ,       r 

the  Code  *ove*     ■*-na';  1S>  the  -Rotarian  does  not  do  right 

simply  because  it  preserves  himself,  but  because 
he  had  rather  be  destroyed  than  destroy  another.  Thus  his  code 
of  ethics  is  founded  on  love. 

This  code  does  not  take  sides  in  the  present  dispute  in  society 
between  the  Conservative  and  the  Liberal.     It  argues  merely 

because  it  is  conservative  or  liberal.  This  Code 
the  Code  seeks  one  thing — the  value — the  utility — of  the 

ethics  it  propounds.     The  utility  of  the  Code 


94  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

and  not  its  liberalism  or  its  conservatism  has  been  the  ideal  of 
the  man  who  wrote  it.  By  this  it  must  stand,  for  by  this  it 
cannot  fall. 

In  the  same  way  that  the  vocational  groups  must  be  brought 
under  the  rule  of  the  universal  community  of  justice,  the  in- 
dustrial  groups   must   recognize   the    same   au- 
Ethics  thority.     The  failure  of  industry  to  recognize  its 

allegiance  to  morality  and  right  has  been  largely 
the  cause  of  our  present  industrial  trouble.  We  must  write  into 
the  industrial  codes  of  the  future  the  principles  which  will  make 
these  industrial  groups  fit  members  of  the  universal  community. 
These  codes  will  probably  be  written  by  Christian  men  who  are 
closely  in  touch  with  industry  and  have  that  technical  knowledge 
which  alone  makes  possible  true  ethical  knowledge.  Two  at- 
tempts to  write  industrial  creeds  are  here  given. 

The  first  is  chosen  from  the  reconstruction  program  of  the 
British  Labor  Party,  published  under  the  title,  "Labor  and  the 
New  Social  Order"  : 

"We  need  to  beware  of  patchwork.  The  view  of  the  Labour  Party  is, 
that  which  has  to  be  reconstructed  after  the  war  is  not  this  or  that 
Government  Department,  or  this  or  that  piece  of  social  machinery,  but, 
so  far  as  Britain  is  concerned,  society  itself.  The  individual  worker,  or 
for  that  matter  the  individual  statesman,  immersed  in  daily  routine — 
like  the  individual  soldier  in  a  battle — easily  fails  to  understand  the  magni- 
tude and  far-reaching  importance  of  what  is  taking  place  around  him. 
How  does  it  fit  together  as  whole?  How  does  it  look  from  a  distance? 
.  .  .  What  this  war  is  consuming  is  not  merely  the  security,  the  homes, 
the  livelihood  and  the  lives  of  millions  of  innocent  families,  and  an 
enormous  proportion  of  all  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  world,  but  also 
the  very  basis  of  the  peculiar  social  order  in  which  it  has  arisen.  The 
individualistic  system  of  capitalist  production,  based  on  the  private 
ownership  and  competitive  administration  of  land  and  capital,  with  its 
reckless  'profiteering'  and  wage  slavery ;  with  its  glorification  of  the 
unhampered  struggle  for  the  means  of  life  and  its  hypocritical  pretence  of 
the  'survival  of  the  fittest';  with  the  monstrous  inequality  of  circum- 
stances which  it  produces  and  the  degeneration  and  brutalization,  both 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY     95 

moral  and  spiritual,  resulting  therefrom,  may,  we  hope,  indeed  have 
received  a  death  blow.  With  it  must  go  the  political  system  and  ideas  in 
which  it  naturally  found  expression.  We  of  the  Labour  Party,  whether 
in  opposition  or  due  time  called  upon  to  form  an  Administration,  will 
certainly  lend  no  hand  to  its  revival.  On  the  contrary,  we  shall  do  our 
utmost  to  see  that  it  is  buried  with  the  millions  whom  it  has  done  to 
death.  If  we  in  Britain  are  to  escape  from  the  decay  of  civilisation  itself, 
we  must  ensure  that  what  is  presently  to  be  built  up  is  a  new  social  order, 
based  not  on  fighting  but  on  fraternity — not  on  the  competitive  struggle 
for  the  means  of  bare  life,  but  on  a  deliberately  planned  co-operation  in 
production  and  distribution  for  the  benefit  of  all  who  participate  by  hand 
or  by  brain — not  on  the  utmost  possible  inequality  of  riches,  but  on  a 
systematic  approach  towards  a  healthy  equality  of  material  circumstances 
for  every  person  born  into  the  world — not  on  an  enforced  dominion  over 
subject  nations,  subject  races,  subject  colonies,  subject  classes,  or  a  sub- 
ject sex,  but,  in  industry  as  well  as  in  Government,  on  that  equal  freedom, 
that  general  consciousness  of  consent,  and  that  widest  possible  participa- 
tion in  power,  both  economic  and  political,  which  is  characteristic  of 
Democracy.  We  do  not,  of  course,  pretend  that  it  is  possible,  even  after 
the  drastic  clearing  away  that  is  now  going  on,  to  build  society  anew  in 
a  year  or  two  of  feverish  'Reconstruction,'  What  the  Labour  Party 
intends  to  satisfy  itself  about  is  that  each  brick  that  it  helps  to  lay  shall 
go  to  erect  the  structure  that  it  intends,  and  no  other. 

"We  need  not  here  recapitulate,  one  by  one,  the  different  items  in 
the  Labour  Party's  programme,  which  successive  Party  Conferences 
have  adopted.  .  .  .  The  Four  Pillars  of  the  House  that  we  propose  to 
erect,  resting  upon  the  common  foundation  of  the  Democratic  control  of 
society  in  all  its  activities,  may  be  termed,  respectively : 

"(a)   The  Universal  Enforcement  of  the  National  Minimum; 

"(b)  The  Democratic  Control  of  Industry; 

"(c)   The  Revolution  in  National  Finance;  and 

"(d)   The  Surplus  Wealth  for  the  Common  Good. 

"The  various  detailed  proposals  of  the  Labour  Party,  herein  briefly 
summarised,  rest  on  these  four  pillars,  and  can  best  be  appreciated  in 
connection  with  them." 

In  much  the  same  spirit  from  the  standpoint  of  Christian 
ethics,  is  the  following  statement  of  the  Social  Service  Commis- 
sion of  the  Congregational  Churches  of  America : 

"We  recognize  that  the  building  of  a  great  social  order  characterized  by 


96  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

justice  is  not  something  which  can  be  set  up  en  masse  but  must  be  built 
up  community  by  community,  social  situation  by  social  situation,  and  that 
the  obligation  to  think  in  terms  of  social  justice  thus  becomes  the  obliga- 
tion of  every  Christian  to  seek  justice  in  every  community  where  he  has 
accurate  knowledge  and  a  control  over  the  conditions  which  endows  moral 
theory  with  real  obligation. 

"We  declare  for  the  sacredness  of  human  beings  over  against  the  world 
of  things.  All  the  machinery  of  civilization,  its  industries,  its  laws,  its 
institutions,  exist  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  machinery. 

"We  declare  for  the  absolute  necessity  of  every  social  unit  both  indi- 
vidual and  group  justifying  itself  on  the  basis  of  its  ability  and  will  to 
serve.  The  crying  need  of  today  is  for  men  who  see  in  the  common 
vocations  of  life  man's  opportunity  and  obligation  to  serve.  The  com- 
munity offers  to  men  the  opportunity  to  be  ministers,  teachers,  lawyers, 
soldiers,  surgeons,  merchants,  manufacturers,  publishers,  and  laboring 
men.  We  need  nothing  short  of  a  moral  revolution  in  the  spirit  and 
purpose  with  which  men  enter  these  lines  of  work.  There  is  not  one 
ethics  of  service  for  the  minister  and  another  law  for  the  manufacturer. 
There  is  not  one  law  of  service  to  the  state  for  the  soldier  and  another 
for  the  lawyer.  Public  service  alone  justifies  the  holding  of  private 
property  or  the  possession  of  a  license  for  professional  practice. 

"We  declare  that  the  setting  up  of  programs  of  social  justice  must  be 
a  cooperative  task  of  all  groups  and  parties  concerned  and  that  no  one 
group  has  such  a  monopoly  on  a  sense  of  justice  as  to  constitute  it  the 
sole  arbiter  of  justice  in  any  social  situation,  and  we  look  with  favor  on 
all  movements  in  community,  in  national,  in  international  and  in  in- 
dustrial life,  which  seek  the  way  of  justice  by  the  calling  together  of  all 
parties  concerned  for  common  counsel.  In  the  open  parliaments  for  free 
discussion  we  see  part  of  those  'things  which  belong  to  peace.' 

"We  declare  that  the  cooperation  of  free  individuals  and  free  groups 
will  produce  a  finer  social  order  than  can  be  built  up  through  the  estab- 
lishment of  any  dictatorship.  We  recognize  that  in  granting  to  indi- 
viduals and  to  groups  a  generous  amount  of  freedom  there  is  always  a 
danger  that  society  will  break  up  into  social  anarchy  or  degenerate  into 
a  dictatorship  of  the  strong.  There  are  those  who  seek  a  solution  only  in 
a  new  dictatorship  of  the  many,  but  no  community  is  large  enough  to 
contain  a  dictatorship.  True  community  life  resents  the  dictatorship  of 
church,  of  capital,  of  hereditary  class,  of  military  power,  of  the  pro- 
letariat. A  community  which  accepts  the  dictatorship  of  any  class  has 
forfeited  the  right  to  the  loyalty  of  all  other  classes.  We  believe  that  a 
free   community   served   by   free   individuals   and   by   free   groups   in   a 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY     97 

brotherly  spirit  of  cooperation  can  offer  to  every  man  a  larger  share  and 
portion  than  any  other  kind  of  social  order  which  the  world  knows. 

"We  declare  for  an  extended  application  of  the  great  summary  of  the 
law  of  social  justice  given  us  by  Jesus,  'Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  unto  you  even  so  do  ye  unto  them,'  which  being  further  inter- 
preted means  we  shall  not  be  contented  until  those  values  which  we 
demand  for  ourselves  as  privileges  become  the  possession  of  every  man 
inside  the  limits  of  our  social  order. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  an  adequate  home  life,  even  so  must  we 
extend  the  privilege  unto  others. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  a  living  wage  and  conditions  conducive  to 
health  and  morality,  even  so  must  we  extend  these  conditions  until  they 
exist  for  the  masses  of  the  people. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  an  adequate  economic  opportunity,  even  so 
must  we  work  for  a  social  order  in  which  there  will  be  none  without 
opportunity  to  work  and  in  which  it  will  be  impossible  for  idlers  to  live 
in  luxury  and  for  workers  to  live  in  poverty. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  a  square  deal  in  industry,  even  so  will  we 
seek  to  abolish  all  special  economic  privileges  which  enable  some  to  live 
at  the  expense  of  others. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  the  right  to  determine  the  conditions  under 
which  we  labor,  even  so  must  we  extend  this  privilege  of  self-determina- 
tion and  representation  in  industry  to  others. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  opportunities  for  wholesome  recreation,  even 
so  would  we  see  that  the  opportunity  for  wholesome  play  is  extended  to 
the  limits  of  the  community. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  public  safety  in  person,  even  so  we  would 
uphold  the  sacredness  of  all  machinery  of  public  law  and  will  not  allow 
it  to  be  manipulated  in  the  interest  of  any  private  group,  and  we  will 
fight  mob  lawlessness  to  the  extent  of  our  ability. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  safety  in  name  and  reputation,  even  so  we 
will  fight  the  promotion  of  race  prejudice  and  every  means  by  which  men 
rob  our  neighbor  of  his  good  name. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  chance  for  education  and  the  opportunity  for 
culture,  even  so  would  we  place  this  privilege  at  the  disposal  of  all  the 
people. 

"We  demand  for  ourselves  freedom  of  conscience  and  freedom  of  wor- 
ship, even  so  will  we  maintain  that  right  for  others  in  the  face  of  private 
and  public  intolerance,  and  we  would  reinstate  the  right  of  free  speech 
in  American  life. 

"Whatsoever  of  these  major  satisfactions  of  life  we  would  for  ourselves, 


98  THE  BIBLE  AS  A  COMMUNITY  BOOK 

these  we  must  demand  for  our  fellowmen  who  share  our  social  order 
with  us." 

The  principles  of  control  for  vigorous  industrial  groups  are 
not  different  except  in  details  from  the  principles  which  must  be 
worked  out  for  the  vigorous  national  groups. 
National  Ethics  The  Christianizing  of  national  ethics  in  the  name 
of  a  world  order  in  which  there  will  be  a  common 
basis  of  right,  a  recognition  of  a  total  welfare  which  is  larger 
than  that  of  any  one  group  and  yet  which  grants  to  every  group, 
however  small,  a  share  in  the  world's  progress,  is  an  absolute 
necessity  if  there  is  to  be  a  society  of  nations  based  on  anything 
more  lasting  than  military  power.  The  old  order  based  on  force 
and  fear  and  the  balance  of  power  has  lost  the  confidence  of 
thinking  people.  The  Church  advances  to  this  new  situation 
with  the  proud  consciousness  that  for  over  a  hundred  years  in  its 
missionary  propaganda,  it  has  said  that  national  lines  are  not 
the  limits  of  love  and  justice.  It  looks  upon  the  plan  for  a 
society  of  nations  as  the  fulfilment  of  its  own  scheme  of  mis- 
sionary activity.  The  Church  believes,  however,  that  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  world  plan  awaits  the  sincerest  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  Church  in  the  building  of  the  smaller  communities  nearer 
home.  By  thus  devoting  itself  to  the  community  which  it  knows 
best  and  advancing  through  an  ever  widening  circle  of  com- 
munity life  it  would  seek  to  build  up  a  system  of  communities 
which,  because  they  are  organized  on  Christian  principles  and 
feel  the  authority  of  the  Christian  ethics,  will  culminate  in  a 
Christian  world  order  which  will  be  the  community  of  God  on 
earth. 

It  is  evident  that  a  conscience  which  takes  upon  itself  a  world 
task  must  feel  that  it  has  its  origin  and  authority  in  the  will  of 
God.  The  futility  of  a  fragmentary,  isolated  code  of  ethics  to 
control  human  society  is  apparent  whenever  one  thinks  of  the 


COMMUNITY  FOUNDED  ON  JUSTICE  TO-DAY    99 

colossal  forces  to  be  controlled.    The  task  cannot  be  accomplished 

except  as  there  is  the  marshalling  of  a  great 

The  Corporate     social   force   like   the    Christian    Church   whose 

onscience  corporate  conscience  is  rooted  in  the  very  being 

Religious  °^  ^od  and  whose  outreach  is  in  every  province 

of   human   society.     There    can   be   no    divorce 

between  religion  and  ethics  if  the  battle  is  to  be  won.     There 

can  be  no  minimizing  of  the  Church  if  the  battle  is  to  be  won. 

The  forces  of  a  living  Church,  which  is  also  the  historic  Church, 

in  the  name  of  the  God  of  our  fathers,  who  is  also  the  God  of 

the  present,  must  rally  to  the  task  of  setting  up  the  authority  of 

the  spirit  in  a  world  which  cannot  be  manipulated  from  without 

but  must  be  controlled  from  within. 


